LEXINGTON, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mar 11, 2009 – EPIX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:EPIX), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel therapeutics through the use of its proprietary and highly efficient in silico drug discovery platform, today announced that it has achieved another milestone in its collaboration with Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics, Inc. (CFFT), the nonprofit affiliate of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Under the terms of the collaboration EPIX has earned an additional $500,000, bringing the total amount of milestone payments achieved under this collaboration to $5 million. The milestone payment is part of a research, development and commercialization agreement between EPIX and CFFT that focuses on discovering potential drug therapies targeting the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane conductance Regulator (CFTR) ion channel. Under the terms of the agreement, EPIX will own all worldwide rights to any compound that results from the collaboration.To earn the milestone, EPIX successfully completed in silico high throughput screening at four distinct sites in the delta F508 mutational form of CFTR for small molecules that may correct the defects in the mutation’s cellular processing and chloride channel gating. The delta F508 is the most common mutation of the key protein associated with cystic fibrosis. EPIX and CFFT believe that ligands to CFTR may act as molecular chaperones, stabilizing the folded structure and modulating CFTR activity.

“We continue to make progress in our collaboration with CFFT and believe that our research may eventually lead to significant advances in the treatment of cystic fibrosis,” said Elkan Gamzu, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of EPIX. “This achievement, coupled with our announcement in September 2008 regarding the identification of dual-acting compounds that act as both potentiators and correctors, moves us one important step closer to lead optimization and the identification of clinical candidates.”

Early in the collaboration, EPIX became the first company to generate a 3-D model of the CFTR, a considerable step forward in the CF research field. All of these milestones resulted from EPIX’s highly efficient discovery platform which integrates proprietary in silico modeling techniques with hypothesis-driven approaches for the design and synthesis of compounds.

“Our collaboration with EPIX continues to yield important scientific advances in the field of cystic fibrosis research,” added Robert J. Beall, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. “This is the first time that a 3-D model has been used to test for compounds that may bind to multiple sites on the CFTR and play a key role in a future treatment for CF. We are pleased with the tangible results stemming from our relationship with EPIX and we look forward to continuing our work together as we focus on our goal of creating new therapies to treat CF.”

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life-threatening genetic disease that affects approximately 30,000 children and adults in the United States and nearly 70,000 people worldwide. It causes life-threatening lung infections and serious digestive complications. A mutation in the CFTR gene is one of the key factors that ultimately leads to the symptoms, complications and premature mortality in people with CF.