Inpharmatica signs drug targets deal with Schering

Scientists from Schering, Germany and Inpharmatica, UK are to collaborate in the area of protein structures with the aim of prioritising proteins as drug targets.

The deal, for which financial terms have not been disclosed, will see Inpharmatica making its Biopendium and Chematica technologies, integral components of its gene-to-candidate technology platform which integrates biology- and chemistry-based drug discovery activities, available to Schering. Biopendium provides sequence annotation for over 150 organisms, which it generates by moving beyond traditional text-based data to a system that incorporates pharmaceutically relevant, protein 3D structure and ligand information.

This is the second such contract won by Inpharmatica, after an agreement signed with Pfizer in January 2005 to assess druggability of a range of nominated proteins.