Entomed enters antiviral drug discovery agreement
French drug discovery company Entomed has entered into a collaboration with US-based Achillion Pharmaceuticals to discover and develop novel antiviral drugs. The partnership will focus on the discovery of new lead compounds for the treatment of a number of serious viral diseases. Any new drugs discovered as a result of the collaboration will be developed jointly.
Under the agreement, Achillion will use its antiviral drug discovery expertise to screen Entomed's library, the Entomotheque, a focused collection of insect-derived molecules and analogues.
Achillion's drug discovery expertise includes state of the art medicinal chemistry and proprietary cell-based and molecular assays.
'Entomed's library houses a novel source of chemical diversity from insects, offering great potential to identify new drug candidates to treat viral diseases,' said Dr William G. Rice, ceo of Achillion. 'From this collaboration we expect to add new drug candidates to our growing pipeline of drugs that combat drug resistance, the major issue in infectious disease treatment today.'
Entomed's core technologies are built on the understanding and exploitation of the battery of molecules synthesised by the powerful defence and cellular control systems of insects. These molecules comprise both peptides and small molecules.
Meanwhile, Entomed has also entered into a screening agreement with NAEJA Pharmaceutical, of Edmonton in Canada. The deal aims to bring new lead compounds into both partners' product pipelines in two therapeutic areas: infectious diseases and cancer.
The companies will share the intellectual property arising from any discoveries made, and both will have an option to further the development of compounds with interesting biological activity in their respective fields of interest.
According to the agreement, NAEJA will have access to the Entomotheque library for the screening of b-lactamase inhibitors, enzymes responsible for bacterial resistance to common antibiotics such as penicillins and cephalosporins. Entomed will be able to investigate NAEJA's proprietary compounds library for anti-proliferative activities.