Sanofi-Aventis sees Avalon agreement annulled

A collaboration agreement between Sanofi-Aventis and Avalon Pharmaceuticals has expired, the latter company said.

The deal, established in December 2003, brought the two firms together to use molecular cytogenetics technologies in finding cancer drug targets. Avalon specialises in research into small molecule therapeutics.

The agreement expired, however, when Sanofi-Aventis decided not to further validate research targets which had been studied by the collaboration. It is hoped that Avalon will be able to make use of the products of the research.

Paul Yong, president of research at Avalon, said: “We have appreciated the close collaboration with Sanofi-Aventis on this program. While they did not select any targets from this program, we expect to continue validation studies on several of the genes as potential Avalon drug discovery targets.”

In other news, Sanofi-Aventis’ vaccine making arm Sanofi has been making strides in producing a vaccine for the H5N1 strain of avian flu.

The company announced earlier in the month that early clinical tests had been positive, and that it has already signed contracts with the French, Australian and US governments to provide a vaccine, according to BusinessWeek.

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