In March 1997, the Columbia Genome Center (CGC) and VIMRx Pharmaceuticals in Wilmington, Del., announced that they had come together to form a subsidiary called VIMRx Genomics Inc. VIMRx Pharmaceuticals is a development-stage company. One of the company's ongoing projects uses catalytic oligozyme technology to treat and prevent disease by controlling disease-triggering flaws in human genetic chemistry.

Under the terms of the agreement, VIMRx will provide CGC with $30 million in funding for genetic research over five years, and VIMRx Genomics will have an option for exclusive licensing of technology developed from use of the funds. Says Dr. Isidore S. Edelman, director of CGC and Robert Wood Johnson Jr. Professor Emeritus: "This landmark contract for the University establishes an open-ended relationship with consultative interaction with a company but without restricting our established principles of academic research. It is the single largest commercial contract that the Health Sciences Division has ever obtained." In the past, CGC has been supported by federal, university, and private funds. The VIMRx deal adds corporate funds and a partner to commercialize the technology developed in CGC.

"Beyond the extra power you get from the funding, this collaboration is important because of the flexibility an open-ended funding program gives us," says Dr. Edelman. "The opportunity to work on the genetic basis of a disease can arise quickly. But it takes one to two years to get NIH funding for new programs. VIMRx provides a stable base of funding so scientists can pursue research with maximum efficiency."

The Columbia Genome Center consists of laboratories throughout the University, and the funding covers only those laboratories that specifically agree to take part in the contract, says Dr. Edelman. The agreement covers gene discoveries related to specific disease states, but CGC scientists decide which research areas to pursue. In addition to receiving significant research support, the University also receives an equity position in VIMRx Genomics--VIMRx Pharmaceuticals owns 90 percent, Columbia owns 10 percent--and a share of all revenues received by the company. "This is a novel model for raising research funds and for the University to share in the financial rewards of such an endeavor," says Jack Granowitz, executive director of Columbia Innovation Enterprise, which handled the agreement negotiations. VIMRx Genomics' headquarters will be in the Berrie Pavilion in the Audubon Biomedical Science and Technology Park.

In a separate arrangement with Columbia, VIMRx Pharmaceuticals has acquired an exclusive worldwide license to a new cardiovascular compound developed in the laboratories of Dr. David Stern, professor of physiology and cell biophysics. The protein, called Factor IXa inhibitor (Factor IXai), has in early studies selectively prevented blood clots that can lead to stroke during surgery while at the same time reducing the potential for bleeding associated with existing anticoagulants. "Each year, 1 million cardiopulmonary bypasses requiring anticoagulation are performed in the United States, Japan, and Western Europe, and approximately 10 percent of the patients suffer dangerous bleeding complications that can result in illness and, in some cases, death," says Dr. Stern. Factor IXai also may be of use to hemodialysis patients. Prevention of blood clotting during hemodialysis is a major unmet medical need. In the United States alone, 170,000 people undergo hemodialysis three times a week. Approximately 5 percent to 10 percent of those patients have bleeding abnormalities related to anticoagulants.

Columbia and VIMRx will test the safety of Factor IXai and provide other preclinical studies that will allow VIMRx to file an investigational new drug application in early 1998. Under the agreement, Columbia will receive an initial cash payment, a commitment for funding to support Factor IXai research, and a share of income derived from later sales.

To learn more about the Columbia Genome Center and VIMRx Genomics, visit http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/research
/campus/camp0061.html and http://www.vimrx.com/ on the World Wide Web.