MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and MARLBOROUGH, Mass., June 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Microcide Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MCDE - news) and Cetek Corporation today announced that they have entered into a collaborative research and development agreement to discover and develop new classes of anti-infective agents.
The collaboration will utilize a specified number of proprietary bacterial, fungal and viral targets from Microcide's microbial genomics VALID System, together with Cetek's proprietary capillary electrophoresis (CE) technology, to identify novel compounds and natural products with antimicrobial activity. Microcide will have worldwide development and commercialization rights on products that result from the collaboration. Under terms of the agreement, Cetek will receive research payments and product development milestone payments, and will gain access to Microcide's Natural Products Diversity library. Financial terms were not disclosed.
``We are very pleased to be collaborating with Cetek to integrate their novel, cell-free screening technologies with our own biochemical and whole-cell screens against a number of Microcide's 350+ essential gene targets,'' said Jim Rurka, President & CEO of Microcide. ``We believe that this combined approach, which utilizes Microcide's microbial genomics VALID System, will find target-specific candidate compounds which are proven to be able to enter the microbial cell, reach the target, and kill the pathogen.''
``The Cetek CE Assay and our screening expertise are gaining wide acceptance for screening novel targets against both synthetic and natural product libraries,'' said James N. Little, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Cetek. ``This collaboration with Microcide provides additional validation of our drug discovery technologies and we look forward to working together in the discovery of new antimicrobial agents.''
Microcide's VALID System
Microcide's VALID (Validated Antimicrobial Lead Identification and Development) System is a proprietary set of integrated genomics and genetics discovery tools from which new classes of antibiotics, antifungal agents and antiviral drugs can be discovered. The VALID System builds on Microcide's unique resources -- novel target identification and validation skills, high-throughput screening capabilities and substantial lead optimization strengths to provide drug discovery and development opportunities for Microcide and other antimicrobial-committed companies.
Cetek's Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) Platform
Cetek Corporation, a privately held drug discovery company, applies its proprietary capillary electrophoresis screening technology to develop high-throughput screening assays for drug targets. The Cetek CE Assay can quickly discover valuable ``hits'' from synthetic libraries, combinatorial mixtures, and natural product extracts. This proprietary technology combines laser-induced fluorescence or UV detection with high resolution CE. The CE Assay technology was originally developed in Professor Barry Karger's laboratory at the Barnett Institute of Northeastern University and is licensed exclusively to Cetek. In addition to the CE Assay, Cetek is adding libraries, fractionation/isolation and analytical capabilities to provide identified hits to its clients. Cetek has collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in North America, Europe and Japan. Additional information is available at Cetek's web site: www.cetek.com. |
