MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Microcide Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MCDE - news) today announced that it has entered into a research collaborative agreement with Discovery Partners International, Inc. (Nasdaq: DPII - news), to optimize the drug-like qualities of Microcide's recently discovered broad-spectrum antifungal compound series.
Using Microcide's proprietary microbial genomics VALID System, the Company has discovered and developed a series of promising antifungal compounds to the point of lead optimization. Members of the series have a defined, selective mechanism-of-action, and a broad-spectrum of activity against key fungal pathogens.
In order to accelerate the lead optimization process, Microcide has chosen to collaborate with Discovery Partners, which is highly skilled in the preparation of chemical libraries by parallel synthesis, using both solid- and solution-phase methods. The compounds that advance from this lead optimization effort into preclinical development will be targeted for treatment of serious systemic fungal infections, including documented or suspected Candida and Aspergillus infections.
``We are very pleased to be working with Discovery Partners at this stage in our antifungal product development efforts. They have proprietary capabilities relating to combinatorial chemistry and the synthesis of compounds which will allow us to optimize our attractive lead series at a faster pace,'' said Jim Rurka, President & CEO of Microcide. ``We are always looking for new technology to complement our VALID System in order to move our discoveries forward as quickly as possible -- in this case, we believe the Discovery Partners collaboration will accomplish exactly that.''
The Microcide VALID (Validated Antimicrobial Lead Identification and Development) System
-- Target Identification and Validation -- Essential Genes
-- Lead Identification -- Integrated High-Throughput Screening and
Mechanism-of-Action (MOA) Studies
-- Lead Optimization -- Applied Medicinal Chemistry, Microbiology and
Pharmacology
-- Clinical Development
Microcide is a biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery, development and commercialization of novel antimicrobials for the improved treatment of serious bacterial, fungal and viral infections. The Company's three discovery research platforms address the growing problems of antibiotic resistance and the need for improved antifungal and antiviral therapeutics. The Company's Cephalosporin Antibiotics and Efflux Pump Inhibition platforms focus on developing novel antibiotics and antibiotic potentiators (efflux inhibitors) to directly address existing bacterial and fungal resistance problems. Microcide's Microbial Genomics platform utilizes proprietary bacterial, fungal and viral genetics and genomics tools -- the VALID System -- to discover entirely new classes of antimicrobial agents.
Discovery Partners International, Inc. is focused on providing the best platforms, services and information available to complement the internal drug discovery efforts of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies in the post-genomic era. Discovery Partners' comprehensive and integrated suite of drug discovery services currently includes combinatorial chemistry products and technologies, high output medicinal chemistry services, industrialized ultra high-throughput screening services and informatics. DPII is headquartered in San Diego, CA and has operations in San Diego, South San Francisco, Tucson, AZ, Ft. Lee, NJ and Basel, Switzerland. For more information on Discovery Partners International, Inc., please visit Discovery Partners' website at discoverypartners.com . |
