Evotec OAI and Panacos in medicinal chemistry agreement
German drug discovery and development company Evotec OAI has entered into a medicinal chemistry collaboration with Panacos Pharmaceuticals, a US biotechnology company developing novel antiviral drugs for the treatment of HIV infection and other major viral diseases.
German drug discovery and development company Evotec OAI has entered into a medicinal chemistry collaboration with Panacos Pharmaceuticals, a US biotechnology company developing novel antiviral drugs for the treatment of HIV infection and other major viral diseases.
Panacos will take advantage of Evotec OAI's full range of state-of-the-art medicinal chemistry capabilities to identify drug candidates for the treatment of HIV infection.
Panacos has recently begun Phase I clinical trials of PA-457, its small molecule, orally available HIV drug candidate. PA-457 is the first in a new class of HIV drugs called maturation inhibitors that have a mechanism of action that differs from those of ap-proved HIV drugs. As a result, PA-457 exhibits potent activity against HIV strains resistant to current therapies, including inhibitors of reverse transcriptase and viral protease. The company also has an active discovery programme focusing on the identification of small molecule inhibitors of viral fusion to human cells.