ChemDiv and Euroscreen Form Strategic Alliance for GPCR Drug Development
ChemDiv, Inc. and Euroscreen s.a. today announced a partnership to discover and develop drug candidates targeting difficult-to-discover drug candidates for high value GPCR family chemokine targets.
San Diego, CA / Brussels, Belgium (PRWEB) July 1, 2005 -- ChemDiv, Inc. and
Euroscreen s.a. today announced a partnership to discover and develop drug
candidates targeting difficult-to-discover drug candidates for high value GPCR
family chemokine targets. ChemDiv’s proprietary chemistry permits small molecule
drug development for such G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) while Euroscreen’s
expertise in GPCR assay development and testing will provide rapid screening of
the ChemDiv’s Library and subsequent target validation and support to ChemDiv
lead optimization. The partnership will provide preclinical and clinical
candidates for partnering with shared income for the companies.
"We are
very excited about the possibility of rapidly targeting the chemokine GPCRs as
the focus of our collaboration," said Alexander Kiselyov, VP Global Chemistry
ChemDiv. "This target-focused alliance with Euroscreen adds to our existing
programs with partners to develop high value drug candidates for GPCR targets
for future partnering."
“This should provide our companies with a rapid
opportunity to each contribute our key proprietary skills to rapidly advance
important new drug candidates,” said Dr. François Roman, the Head of Drug
Development R&D at Euroscreen.
For further information, please
contact:
Euroscreen s.a.
Tel: +32 71 348
500
Pierre Nokin, Ph.D.
President
and CEO
ChemDiv, Inc.
Tel: +1 858-794-4860
Nikolay Savchuk, Ph.D.
President
About ChemDiv
Inc.
ChemDiv Incorporated (ChemDiv) is a global chemistry-driven contract
research organization focused on the delivery of new scientific innovation and
products and services that meet the drug discovery needs of its partners.
Drawing on a long heritage in small-molecule chemistry research as well
as world class pre-clinical biology resources, ChemDiv provides partners with
access to Discovery outSource™ a full service drug discovery capability
encompassing synthetic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, pre-clinical development,
diverse & focused screening libraries and global logistics.
Taking a
dedicated and personal approach to collaborative research and development has
proven to be a successful business model for ChemDiv over a period of 15 years.
This is attested to by the formation of strategic partnerships with many of the
major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies such as Merck KgaA,
Sanofi-Aventis, Astra Zeneca, Dupont, Novo Nordisk and other biopharmaceutical
and crop protection, Early adoption of collaborative R&D model with top
academic centers such as Johns Hopkins , Harvard, Stanford, Burnham Scripps as
well as biotech partners enables ChemDiv with novel biological targets,
pioneering assay systems and animal models.
Opening of the Chemical
Diversity Research Institute in Moscow a facility that houses state-of-art
technology expanded ChemDiv’s capability in discovery chemistry, biological
screening, animal testing, bionanalytical, chemo- and
bio-informatics.
ChemDiv, Inc. is a privately held company based in San
Diego, CA with 400 employees in its facilities worldwide. More information can
be found at www.chemdiv.com.
About Euroscreen s.a.
Euroscreen is
a world leader in G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). The company integrates
its research expertise in this area with its patented high-throughput
AequoScreen™ cellular assay platform to patent new GPCR targets and drug
candidates.
The company is building a patent portfolio of GPCR targets
and novel drug leads for licensing to biopharmaceutical companies, and to date
has agreements with Cephalon, CyBio, EvotecOAI, GE Healthcare, ICOS, Merck &
Co, Pfizer Inc, Solvay, Syngenta and UCB. Euroscreen has also established
collaborations with numerous academic centers for access to licenses to help in
making available its broad menu of GPCR-based products (recombinant cell lines
and membrane preparations) and services (custom screening and cloning).
Euroscreen has grown significant and strong patent positions to protect
many key drug targets for licensing. Such patents include CCR5, GPR7/8 involved
in metabolic defects and adult-onset obesity, purinergic receptors (P2Y4, P2Y11
and P2Y13), ORL-1 and the non-GPCR SHIP2 for type II diabetes. Euroscreen is
able to offer rights to companies which are developing therapeutic drugs that
act through the above-mentioned key targets mode of action.
Euroscreen
is a privately held company based in Brussels, Belgium with 80 employees. More
information can be found at www.euroscreen.com.
# # #
Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/7/prweb255983.htm