Avalon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AVRX)

[TITAN]

Partnerships

Avalon owns full commercialization rights to all of our internal product development programs. As these programs mature during the next few years, we will keep some products solely for internal development and expand the potential of others through partnering. In select cases, we will also likely sign additional partnerships based on the use of AvalonRx. We believe this strategy will expand our product pipeline.

Merck
In March 2007, we entered into a drug discovery, development and commercialization agreement with Merck & Co., Inc., to identify and develop inhibitors against an undisclosed target in oncology. Using our AvalonRx® platform we will screen a select set of compounds from Merck’s proprietary compound library and identify hits against this target, which is generally regarded as "undruggable." We are responsible for the selection of compound families and optimization of those compounds to a preclinical candidate selection stage. Merck is responsible for the clinical development, regulatory approval and commercialization of any resulting product candidates.
astrazeneca/medimmune
In June 2005, we entered into a drug discovery, development and commercialization agreement with AstraZeneca/MedImmune, Inc. for the discovery of small molecule therapeutics in the area of inflammatory diseases. We are using AvalonRx® to identify lead compounds. AstraZeneca/MedImmune is responsible for preclinical and clinical testing of any resulting product candidates, as well as all future development, sales and marketing activities.