Argenta Discovery Announces Collaboration with US Pharmaceutical Company Corcept Therapeutics
Alliance to Create Optimised Candidate for Potential Treatments Within the Field of Mental Illness
2003-05-07 05:54 (New York)
HARLOW, England, May 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Argenta Discovery Ltd today
announced that it has entered into a comprehensive, multi-year collaboration
with Corcept Therapeutics (Palo Alto, CA) for the discovery and optimisation
of a second generation drug candidate within one of Corcept's psychiatric
disorder programmes. Financial details were not disclosed.
Under the terms of the collaboration, Argenta and Corcept scientists will
work closely together in an interdisciplinary team to fully exploit the
integration of biology and chemistry.
Commenting on the agreement, Dr Joseph Belanoff, CEO and co-founder of
Corcept, said, "We are thrilled to begin our collaboration with Argenta.
Argenta is an absolutely first-rate drug discovery house and with their help
we look forward to finding compounds that will ultimately improve the lives of
patients suffering from severe psychiatric illnesses."
Dr Anthony Baxter, Chief Executive Officer of Argenta, added, "We are very
pleased to announce this alliance with Corcept, a further US deal for Argenta
which illustrates the global attraction of our contract services. This
collaboration enables Argenta to deploy its full armoury of capabilities in
chemistry, screening and eADME in an integrated approach to lead discovery and
optimisation. We believe this agreement also highlights the value companies
are increasingly placing on genuine industry experience in both management and
scientists when choosing a partner in drug discovery."
Argenta Discovery Ltd has a US subsidiary, Argenta Discovery, Inc., which
is headquartered in Boston, MA, and has a commercial office in Santa Fe, NM.
About Argenta Discovery Ltd
Argenta Discovery is an independent discovery company providing peer
quality contract services in medicinal chemistry and biochemistry to
pharmaceutical companies of all sizes. Argenta draws on its industry
experienced scientists to deliver rapid hit finding capabilities together with
the ability to convert and optimise hits and leads into validated, patentable
chemical lead series and potential drug candidates. The company has previously
worked with or is currently working with Aventis, Pharmagene, Millennium,
Adolor, De Novo, GlaxoSmithKline, Lundbeck, Amedis and other undisclosed
partners. Argenta also actively works on its own research projects and can
source targets via a unique relationship with London's Imperial College School
of Medicine (Europe's largest medical school). Patentable lead series
resulting from in-house programmes will be available for sale or licence.
Argenta operates in new, state of the art laboratories in Harlow, UK, and
is served by nearby London Stansted Airport. The company also has a US
subsidiary, Argenta Discovery, Inc., and a commercial representation in Japan,
reflecting its global client base. Its scientific skills include
computer-aided drug design, medicinal, parallel and combinatorial chemistry,
high throughput analytical chemistry, molecular biology, biochemical assay
development, automated molecular and cellular screening and in vitro ADMET
screening. For further information please see www.argentadiscovery.com
or email info@argentadiscovery.com
About Corcept Therapeutics, Inc.
Corcept Therapeutics, Inc. is a development stage pharmaceutical company
located in Menlo Park, California. It is engaged in the discovery, development
and commercialization of pharmaceutical products for the treatment of
psychotic major depression and other severe neuropsychiatric disorders.
For further information, please contact:
Argenta Discovery Ltd
David Gee
Chief Commercial Officer
Tel: +44 (0) 1279 645645
david.gee@argentadiscovery.com
Argenta Discovery, Inc.
Kathe Andrews-Cramer
VP Business Development
Tel: +1 (505) 820 0799
kathe.cramer@argentadiscovery.com
HCC De Facto Group
Dr Chris Gardner
Associate Director
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7496 3300
c.gardner@hccdefacto.com |
