7TM gets milestone from Ortho-McNeil

Danish biotechnology company 7TM Pharma has received an undisclosed milestone as part of its research collaboration with Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals. The payment from the US firm, a unit of health care major Johnson & Johnson, was triggered by successful progress in selecting a preclinical candidate for the treatment of asthma and allergy.

In June 2005, 7TM entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement and research collaboration with Ortho-McNeil, to further develop the latter's program on novel oral compounds for the treatment of asthma and allergy. The basis for the collaboration is 7TM's drug discovery platform, Site-Directed Drug Discovery, and one of its resulting programs targeting the discovery of novel antagonists to a certain 7- transmembrane receptor.