Alteon licenses skin technology to Avon.

Alteon, Inc. (Parsippany, NJ) announced that it has granted a non-exclusive worldwide license to Avon Products, Inc. for the use of 2-amino-4,5-dimethylthiazole HBr to improve skin wrinkles and elasticity. The compound is to be used in a formulation of the anti-aging skin care product branded as Anew Alternative Intensive Age Treatment.

The license to Avon is under United States Patent 6,596,744, issued to Alteon on July 22, 2003, and pending patent applications relating to the use of select thiazole compounds for the prevention or treatment of wrinkles and/or loss of elasticity in human skin. As part of this agreement, Alteon will receive a modest up-front payment and annual license payments as long as the product contains the licensed compound.

"We are pleased by this initial relationship in the cosmeceutical arena, and look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship with Avon," said Kenneth I. Moch, President and CEO. "While we continue the clinical development of our lead pharmaceutical candidate alagebrium for vascular diseases, this collaboration is an example of the potential of our technology in other therapeutic areas."

Alteon is developing new classes of drugs that have shown the potential to reverse or slow down diseases of aging and complications of diabetes. These compounds appear to have an impact on a fundamental pathological process caused by the progressive formation of protein-carbohydrate complexes called Advanced Glycation End-products (A.G.E.s). The formation and crosslinking of A.G.E.s lead to a loss of flexibility and function in body tissues and organs and have been shown to be a causative factor in many age-related diseases and diabetic complications. Alteon has created a library of novel classes of compounds targeting the A.G.E. pathway.

Alteon, Inc. [phone] www.alteon.com