Idun Pharma and Abbott Labs extend R&D partnership

Idun Pharmaceuticals says that its worldwide R&D agreement with AbbottLaboratories, which began in 1998, is to be extended. Under the new deal, the two companies will continue their collaboration to discover drugs that regulate the activity of specific proteins involved in the cell pathways leading to programmed cell death, or apoptosis.

Over the past three years, said Idun chief executive Steven Mento, "we have made significant progress in the discovery of innovative treatments for cancer through our partnership." One of the key targets for development in this program, he added, has been compounds that inhibit the Bcl-2 family of anti-apoptotic proteins which allow cancer cells to survive under conditions that would trigger cell death in normal cells.