PALO ALTO, Calif.--Incyte Pharmaceuticals, a genomic technologies provider here, announced two agreements with large pharmaceutical firms earlier this month. Incyte will give Bayer access to its LifeTools proprietary bioinformatics software that will support Bayer's work discovering gene targets and the development of new therapeutic agents. Incyte said the LifeTools system will enhance Bayer's ability to track research projects and to share data with team members directly from desktop computers. The agreement includes a subscription to LifeSeq, Incyte's annotated version of the public cDNA sequence databases.
And, in a deal expanding upon a 1996 agreement that gave Johnson & Johnson access to Incyte's LifeSeq human gene sequence and expression database, Incyte has agreed to provide Johnson & Johnson with access to its PathoSeq microbial genome database in exchange for undisclosed annual access fees.
PathoSeq contains genomic information from over 30 bacterial and fungal microorganisms, integrated into Incyte's bioinformatics software. The company is currently designing microarrays containing microbial gene sequences from PathoSeq to assist scientists with the genome-wide analysis of gene expression in microbial organisms. Collaborators have the option to participate in Incyte's microbial microarray program.