Lexicon Pharmaceuticals - Company History

Company History

Lexicon Pharmaceuticals was founded in September 1995 as a biotech venture of Baylor College of Medicine. The company went public in April 2000 with one of the largest initial public offerings in biotech history ($220 million). In June, 2001 Lexicon purchased a privately owned small chemical library synthesis company, Coelacanth Corporation in Princeton, New Jersey, which became the site for the company's small molecule and medicinal chemistry efforts. The company's original name was Lexicon Genetics Incorporated, but in 2007, the name changed to Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to reflect a renewed focus on drug development.

The company initially focused on using gene knockout technology to define the function of genes. This effort complemented and benefited from the international effort to sequence the human and mouse genomes (see Human Genome Project). Using its proprietary gene trapping and gene targeting technologies, the company created the world’s largest repository of genetically modified mouse embryonic stem cells, known as OmniBankR, and established a large-scale mammalian knockout program to discover the physiological and behavioral functions of the most druggable mammalian genes. The information collected from this program is stored in the company’s LexVisionTM database, which contains almost 5,000 gene knockouts studied. Over the years, Lexicon evolved from a genomics company into a drug discovery and development company focused on discovering and developing breakthrough treatments for human disease. The company currently has multiple drug candidates in various stages of clinical trials.