Avalon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AVRX)

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Press Release Source: Avalon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Avalon Pharmaceuticals Announces the Initiation of Compound Characterization Phase in Drug Discovery Collaboration
Monday January 14, 8:00 am ET

GERMANTOWN, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Avalon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVRX - News), today announced the initiation of the next phase in its drug discovery collaboration with Novartis. The collaboration aims to discover small molecule therapeutic compounds targeted against a pathway selected by Novartis. The terms of the collaboration provide for upfront, research support and milestone payments.

AvalonRx®, Avalon’s proprietary drug discovery platform, was used to screen, identify and characterize compounds from Novartis’ proprietary compound library. Candidate hit compounds were successfully identified by monitoring gene expression changes of a transcriptional signature reflecting disruption of the selected pathway. The parties have agreed to initiate characterization of the identified compounds which triggers an undisclosed payment to Avalon for research support under the terms of the agreement.

“We are very pleased with the progress of this collaboration,” stated Stephen K. Horrigan, Ph.D., Vice President of Research. “Our AvalonRx® drug discovery platform brings real value to programs through greater speed in identifying compounds with more selectivity against virtually any pathway or target, including those which historically have been considered undruggable.”