SIBIA Neurosciences announces suit filed by Pfizer.

SIBIA Neurosciences (La Jolla, CA; 619-452-5892) announced that on May 7, 1999 it was served with a complaint for declaratory relief concerning its transcription-based assay patents, United States Patents 5,401,629 and 5,436,128. The suit was filed in United States District Court for the District of Delaware by Pfizer, Inc. (New York, NY; 212-573-2323)(1997 revenue - $12.2 billion) and alleges that SIBIA's '629 and '128 patents are not infringed, are invalid and unenforceable.

The '629 patent, one of the patents identified in Pfizer's suit, was the subject of litigation between SIBIA and Cadus Pharmaceutical Corporation (Tarrytown, NY). On March 10, 1999, the United States District Court for the Southern District of California entered judgment and a permanent injunction in favor of SIBIA in that suit. The court entered judgment after a jury awarded the full amount of the damages, $18.0 million, requested by SIBIA. The jury also found that the patent was valid and enforceable.

"We are surprised that Pfizer has chosen this means of communicating its lack of interest in a license," stated Stephen F. Keane, SIBIA's vice president, corporate development. "It appears that Pfizer's intention not to participate in our licensing program is in stark contrast to our successful licensing of this technology to Bristol Myers Squibb (New York, NY; 212-546-4000)(1997 revenue - $16.2 billion), SmithKline Beecham (United Kingdom)(1997 revenue - $13.1 billion), Aurora, Neurocrine, Novartis AG (Basel, Switzerland), and others. Keane added, "We are currently in negotiations with a number of other companies and expect that the value of this patented technology will increase as licensed by additional biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies."

SIBIA Neurosciences is engaged in the discovery and development of novel small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative, neuropsychiatric, and neurological disorders, many of which have large patient populations and represent critical unmet medical needs. SIBIA is a leader in the development of proprietary drug discovery platforms that combine key tools necessary for modern drug discovery, including genomics, high throughput screening, advanced combinatorial chemistry techniques, and pharmacology. The company's proprietary molecular targets and drug candidates, together with its drug discovery technologies and research expertise, have enabled the company to establish several corporate research collaborations, which currently include Bristol-Myers Squibb and Meiji Seika Kaisha, Ltd. (Japan), and multiple technology licensing arrangements.