We are committed to developing innovative therapies that have the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes for cancer and other serious diseases. We are building a portfolio of compounds that have first-in-class and best-in-class potential through our own discovery research and clinical development initiatives. We believe that our ability to commercialize novel therapies requires building a critical mass of resources – personnel, technology, intellectual property, and capital – at each step of the drug development process.

Discovery Research

We have made significant investments in all aspects of our discovery platform, from target discovery and validation through to late-stage pharmacological characterization. This robust platform allows us to identify and optimize multiple drug candidates in parallel, supporting the continued growth and replenishment of the Exelixis pipeline. Our discovery operation has the infrastructure and expertise to screen and optimize large numbers of compounds very rapidly while retaining stringent selection criteria. Our ability to optimize lead compounds in a parallel fashion creates a pool of extensively qualified candidates from which we can select the few that meet our high standards for pre-clinical safety, bioavailability, potency, specificity, and efficacy. This is achieved by integrating highly automated empirical approaches (high-throughput screening and high-speed chemistry) and data-intensive, structure-assisted design paradigms coupled with extensive pharmacological characterization. We believe the process we have created represents a new paradigm for consistently discovering novel therapeutic compounds. Our current discovery efforts are focused in the areas of cancer and metabolic diseases; however, the platform can be leveraged to identify targets and compounds with applications in other therapeutic areas such as inflammation. For key disease targets that are best addressed by therapeutic antibodies, Exelixis has utilized strategic alliances, combining our biology and screening expertise with antibody discovery and development capabilities of professional antibody companies. This approach enables us to efficiently and comprehensively evaluate the therapeutic potential of biotherapeutics directed to an entire family of receptors and ligands.