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A partnership of VAST
consequence
June 2013
EDIT CONNECT
SHARING OPTIONS:
LONDON—Australian drug development company Alchemia has
announced a multitarget drug discovery collaboration agreement using its
proprietary chemistry platform to work with biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca
PLC.
Alchemia will receive an undisclosed upfront payment and
will
be eligible for potential additional payments totaling up to $240 million
upon meeting specified preclinical, clinical and commercial-launch milestones.
Alchemia will also be entitled to a single-digit royalty on commercial sales of
products developed under the auspices of this collaboration.
The collaboration is based around the use of Alchemia's
proprietary Diversity Scanning Array (DSA)
library and associated Versatile
Assembly on Stable Templates (VAST) chemistry platform to discover and develop
novel small molecules against multiple
targets selected by AstraZeneca.
The DSA library is a suite of novel compounds that scans 3D
molecular shapes and peptidomimetic functionality. The array contains more than
14,000 compounds related by shape (chemoform) and/or functionality. The
DSA
forms the basis for Alchemia's VAST discovery platform, which can be screened
in HTS to identify the shape and binding elements required for
target
modulation. Because hits are related by shape and/or functionality, detailed
structure activity relationships are laid bare for rapid
optimization.
Under the terms of this agreement, Alchemia will provide
AstraZeneca with its VAST
chemistry expertise to help to develop several
small-molecule clinical candidates. Initially, Alchemia will provide
AstraZeneca with assay-ready
screening plates of their entire DSA library.
AstraZeneca will internally screen up to 10 targets against this library across
multiple research areas
including oncology, respiratory, cardiovascular, metabolism,
infection and neuroscience.
"Identified hit series will be optimized jointly whereby
Alchemia will contribute primarily with its expertise in the build and
synthesis of
carbohydrate-based peptidomimetics," says Michael Kossenjans,
R&D team leader at AstraZeneca.
The aim of the partnership is the identification,
optimization and ultimately development of a novel small-molecule modulator for
one or more of
the drug targets in AstraZeneca's project portfolio.
"AstraZeneca was and is attracted by Alchemia's
VAST
discovery platform because the compounds of the DSA library cover a specific
three-dimensional shape space that compounds from AstraZeneca's own
screening
collection basically don't," says Kossenjans. "DSA library compounds are …
considered by AstraZeneca to be potentially attractive starting
points for
several ongoing but also emerging drug targets."
"This collaboration has the
potential to demonstrate the
unique capabilities and value of VAST, and is a pivotal step in the
commercialization of both the DSA and the VAST
platform," Dr. Wim Meutermans,
vice president of discovery at Alchemia and co-inventor of the VAST platform,
said in a media statement. "I look
forward to developing a strong and
productive alliance with AstraZeneca over the coming years."
"We have been
actively seeking access to novel chemical
equity—compounds that differ significantly from our internal compound
library—to screen against important but
challenging biological targets," says
Kossenjans. "We were aware of Alchemia's publications about their VAST
technology in MedChem-relevant journals
from 2008 to 2010, and have been
talking to them about a potential collaboration for some time."
Alchemia is a drug
development company based in Brisbane,
Australia, with a late-stage oncology product pipeline, and one FDA-approved
drug, Fondaparinux—a generic
version of GlaxoSmithKline's Arixtra—which is an
injectable anticoagulant approved in the United States for the prevention and
treatment of deep vein
thrombosis after knee or hip surgery. Alchemia's
pipeline of oncology products is built upon its proprietary platform HyACT,
which is used to
selectively target cancer drugs to tumors. Alchemia recently
announced the final recruitment for its most advanced cancer drug, HA-Irinotecan,
which is
in Phase III evaluations for the treatment of metastatic colorectal
cancer.
AstraZeneca is a
global integrated biopharmaceutical company
that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of
prescription medicines, primarily for
the treatment of cardiovascular,
metabolic, respiratory, inflammation, autoimmune, oncology, infection and
neuroscience diseases. Its annual revenue
for 2012 was nearly $28 billion, and
the company currently employs nearly 52,000 people globally. Code: E061309 Back |
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