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>>MONTREAL and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- A strategic alliance announced today between MDS Pharma Services and Iconix Pharmaceuticals will advance a novel chemogenomics information system for drug discovery and development. The system, DrugMatrix(TM), will bring unprecedented speed and efficiency to understanding the potential safety and efficacy of new drug candidates at the genomic, chemical structure and pharmacologic level. MDS Pharma Services will be a major participant in the development of DrugMatrix, make an equity investment in Iconix, and commit other funds and technology to the development of DrugMatrix. Financial terms were not disclosed.
MDS Pharma Services, one of the pharmaceutical industry's leading contract research organizations, is the world leader in pharmacology with unmatched expertise and the industry's broadest range of pharmacology assays. Iconix Pharmaceuticals, a privately held biotechnology company, is a leader in the emerging field of chemogenomics and is developing the integrated informatics platform and novel chemogenomic content for DrugMatrix. The development relationship with MDS Pharma Services will complement a previously announced alliance between Iconix and Incyte Genomics, also a major partner in the development and commercialization of DrugMatrix.
DrugMatrix integrates genomic, biological, chemical, pharmacological and pharmacokinetic information to help industry scientists understand the molecular basis for a drug's efficacy and predict potential toxicity and other side effects. DrugMatrix is supported by a combination of proprietary and commercially available data query and mining tools. These tools facilitate analysis of a DrugMatrix user's proprietary compounds and drug candidates against a rich, contextual reference set of pharmacologic and chemogenomic information on thousands of well-characterized pharmaceuticals, failed therapeutics, known toxicants and other important benchmark molecules.
Under the terms of the strategic alliance, Iconix and MDS Pharma Services will exclusively combine their respective technologies and expertise for the development of DrugMatrix. In particular, MDS Pharma Services will leverage over 30 years of expertise in pharmacology assay development and screening to profile thousands of the DrugMatrix benchmark drug molecules, creating what is believed to be the first standardized source of such comprehensive pharmacology information on marketed, failed and other pharmaceuticals. This information will be leveraged and integrated with Iconix's extensive genomic expression array profiling, literature curation studies and chemical indexing of the same benchmark molecules. The DrugMatrix system is being commercialized exclusively by Incyte, the leading genomic information company.
``This alliance gives us the unique opportunity to contribute to the evolution of life sciences informatics and chemogenomics, both of which are being spurred by the convergence of biology, drug development and information technology,'' said Doug Squires, president and chief executive officer, MDS Pharma Services. ``Integrated with the data from our pharmacology profiling team, DrugMatrix will provide drug developers a powerful information and analytical system that should accelerate target prioritization, optimization, and predictive clinical assessment. The adoption of DrugMatrix by drug sponsors will ultimately lead to faster development of more effective and safer drugs.''
``DrugMatrix is a critical tool for the pharmaceutical industry, providing scientists with the ability to predict safe, efficacious and marketable therapies before preclinical studies and human clinical trials are initiated,'' said Keith Bostain, president and chief executive officer, Iconix. ``A key portion of the chemogenomic relationships identified within DrugMatrix will be driven by the pharmacology assay profiling studies. By forming an alliance with MDS Pharma Services, we have exclusive access to the premier provider of these services in the pharmaceutical industry.''<<
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Cheers, Tuck |
