Oct. 23 /CNW/ -- Packard BioScience Company (Nasdaq: PBSC - news) announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary BioSignal Packard, Inc. has been awarded a greatly expanded screening contract with AstraZeneca R&D Montreal in St. Laurent, Quebec. The contract, valued at US $5.5 million follows on the heels of a three-year contract between the two companies, which ended last month. Under the terms of the agreement, BioSignal Packard's technologies will be used to test AstraZeneca's combinatorial compound libraries against a defined selection of G protein- coupled receptors (GPCRs).
AstraZeneca uses a novel screening approach, named "Focused Library Screening," developed with BioSignal Packard, which involves the rapid testing of a limited number of compounds against a panel of structurally diverse GPCR targets. Based on the results, new sets of compounds are designed and synthesized by AstraZeneca using combinatorial chemistry and then tested by BioSignal Packard against the same diverse GPCR set. This iterative process enables AstraZeneca to rapidly identify the important molecular determinants in compounds, refine their structure and quickly develop selective drugs for defined targets. As part of the expanded agreement, BioSignal Packard's newly developed BRET2(TM) technology will be used specifically for screening against a collection of AstraZeneca's GPCRs.
"AstraZeneca's relationship with BioSignal Packard continues to be very successful and productive," stated Dr. Jan M Lundberg, Senior Vice President, Global Discovery of AstraZeneca. "The Focused Library Screening program has accelerated our drug discovery operations. With its broad target portfolio, efficient operation and emphasis on the development of new technologies, BioSignal Packard is a highly valuable partner," said Dr. Philippe Walker, Vice President, Discovery of AstraZeneca R&D Montreal.
"BioSignal Packard and AstraZeneca have enjoyed a close partnership over the last three years that has proved both challenging and rewarding," said Dr. Daniel Chelsky, President of BioSignal Packard, Inc. "Working with such an innovative partner, of global importance, has helped drive our own development as a provider of advanced assay technologies and services. In addition to revenue growth, the expanded agreement provides an excellent opportunity to more broadly apply our recently introduced BRET2(TM) technology for proteomics."
BioSignal Packard develops and supplies products, services and enabling technologies for drug discovery. Its current offerings include over 100 GPCR- based products, Gene2Screen(TM) custom assay development, and High Throughput Screening (HTS) services. BioSignal Packard has also recently developed and commercialized AlphaScreen(TM), a new ultra-sensitive detection technology for HTS. BioSignal Packard reagents can be combined with instrumentation from its sister companies Packard Instrument Company, Inc and CCS Packard, Inc., such as the AlphaQuest(TM) and Fusion(TM) microplate analyzers and the PlateTrak(TM) microplate processor, to provide a highly robust approach to miniaturization and HTS for the pharmaceutical industry... |
