Triangle Raises $15m For New Company

BT Catalyst, April, 2000

Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: VIRS) of Durham has received a $15 million private placement to fund a new start-up company called Intelligent Therapeutic Solutions Inc. (ITS).

ITS is a health information technology company that uses proprietary integrated artificial intelligence (AI) technology for the management of chronic and complex diseases. The company's first product in development is the HIV Therapy Expert(HIV-TE).

The funding for the new company was provided by Belgium-based Virco Group NV, and Pythagoras Participations. Of the $15 million, $10 million has been invested and the remaining $5 million will be invested on or before June 30.

Virco, a biotechnology company, will collaborate with ITS on potential future services and products for healthcare providers and patients faced with HIV and other diseases. Once the entire amount is invested, Triangle will own 29% of ITS, Virco will own 16.5%, and Pythagoras will own 16.5%. The remainder will be held by employees of ITS and Triangle.

ITS was formed early this year by the consolidation of 5Gen, a Durham-based software company, and the group within Triangle responsible for the development of the HIV-TE program.

Originally designed to facilitate clinical trials of Triangle drug candidates, HIV-TE' s broader potential to provide healthcare professionals with medical management tools for HIV-infected patients emerged during the past several years of development. HIV-TE is currently in pre-Beta testing at seven academic medical centers in the U.S.

"Given the complexities of managing the treatment of HIV-infected patients, we believe that applying artificial intelligence to this process should make the healthcare provider's job significantly easier," said Dr. David W. Barry, chairman and CEO of Triangle. "In addition, such a system could provide the benefits of quality assurance and quality control in the physician and patient setting," he said.

The founders and executive management of ITS include recognized experts in various fields. The board of directors of ITS include: Barry, Dr. Paul Stoffels, the chief executive officer of Virco, and Marc van Rompaey, president of Pythagoras. Bruce McCreedy, Ph.D., formerly vice president of clinical virology and diagnostics for Triangle, is the president and chief executive officer of ITS.

Triangle and Dynavax enter collaborative agreement

In other company news, Triangle and Dynavax Technologies Corp. of Berkeley, Calif., have entered into a collaborative agreement to develop immunostimulatory pharmaceutical candidates intended to modulate the human immune response for the treatment and prevention of serious viral diseases.

Triangle will license worldwide exclusive rights to Dynavax' proprietary immunostimulatory DNA sequences (ISS) for the treatment of HIV and for the treatment and prevention of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV).

ISSs are short sequences of synthetic single-strand DNA that induce the immune system to fight pathogens and counter-balance allergic responses.

The two companies will collaborate to bring ISS-based therapies through clinical trials, focusing initially on completing late-preclinical studies to support the use of ISS for the treatment of HBV.

"We believe that immunotherapy, when used with combination chemotherapy, should play an important role in the development of more effective regimens for the treatment of chronic viral diseases," Barry said. "The Dynavax ISS technology has the potential to work across many of these diseases, including HBV, HCV and HIV," he added.

In addition to the receipt of the worldwide license, Triangle will purchase shares of Dynavax Series T preferred stock for an aggregate amount of $2 million. Triangle will also provide non-contingent research funding, make contingent development milestone payments and pay royalties on sales. The terms of the agreements are subject to closing.