Lonza Inks Deal with Odyssey Thera Expanding Drug-Discovery and Safety-Testing Offerings

Lonza has agreed to make Odyssey Thera's protein-fragment complementation assay (PCA) technology available to life science and drug discovery researchers as part of its compound-profiling services. Additionally, Odyssey Thera granted Lonza an option to certain exclusive, global technology licenses. The companies have also initiated collaborative technology, product development, and marketing activities.

Under the terms of the agreement, Odyssey Thera will receive an equity investment and technology development funding. It is also eligible to receive additional payments upon option exercise as well as milestones and royalties on Lonza sales. With the equity investment Lonza has become a minority shareholder in Odyssey Thera.

Odyssey Thera reports that its intellectual property position covering PCA encompasses 16 issued U.S. and international patents as well as over 60 pending applications. PCA enables precise visualization and localization of protein complexes within living human cells, the company explains.

A key benefit of the technology is the applicability to any target, pathway, or disease process, Odyssey Thera points out. The firm has created hundreds of contextual cellular assays, an infrastructure to analyze and mine the data, and a database of known drug and toxicant cellular activity.