Research collaboration to evaluate peptides for bone and cartilage therapeutics

Kingston, ON July 8, 2003 Millenium Biologix, a Canadian medical biotechnology company specializing in skeletal repair and tissue engineering, says it has entered into a research agreement with Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals.

Under the agreement, P&G will carry out an evaluation of the therapeutic potentials of Millenium’s proprietary synthetic BCSP (bone and cartilage stimulating peptides) growth factors to treat diseases of bone and cartilage.

BCSP synthetic growth factors are the result of several years of work at MBI to develop active, tissue-specific, growth promoting small molecules that target bone and cartilage. During this development work for orthopedic implant and ex vivo tissue engineering applications, the systemic drug potentials of BCSP were studied. The encouraging early results form the basis of this collaboration.

Millenium says it has granted P&G an option for the compounds, and the companies have signed a letter of intent outlining the terms for a worldwide license to P&G Pharmaceuticals.