The assay will move into a high-throughput drug screening program at Lilly within the next several weeks, at which point Millennium will receive a milestone payment. We are also pleased that this first of many possible approaches we are working on in cardiovascular disease moved so quickly to the drug screening stage.
Atherosclerosis is one of the nation's most significant health problems.
These same lesions are also implicated as a possible cause of angina pectoris. It is estimated that over half the adult population of the developed nations are at risk of atherosclerosis. The costs associated with this disease in the United States alone are in the billions of dollars annually. In other recent news from this cardiovascular program, Millennium scientists and collaborators at Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital published in the September 1996 issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the discovery of several genes associated with blood flow patterns known to be linked to the formation of atherosclerotic lesions. Independently and in strategic alliances with leading pharmaceutical companies, the Company has focused its research efforts on identifying and elucidating the function of genes responsible for diseases that affect millions of individuals and are underserved by current therapeutic alternatives.