Structural GenomiX Announces Drug Discovery Partnership With Millennium Pharmaceuticals
Collaboration Breaks New Ground in Structure-Enabled Drug Discovery
SAN DIEGO, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Privately-held Structural GenomiX, Inc. (SGX) and Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MLNM - news) today announced a collaboration agreement to utilize high throughput structural information to improve the productivity of drug discovery. Millennium will utilize SGX's structure determination platform to advance multiple targets through drug discovery more rapidly and effectively.
Using its genomics-driven structure determination and chemistry platform, SGX will generate large-scale structural information for Millennium drug targets, providing Millennium scientists access to hundreds of structures and enabling them to select lead compounds rationally by designing drugs with greater potency, selectivity and specificity. The collaboration will focus on two critical areas of research; the first using structural information of Millennium targets and co-crystallization with lead compounds, the second using further structural analysis of certain target families, including determination of proteins that are closely related to the drug targets, to provide improved selectivity information for lead optimization.
It is expected that early stage access to this scope of structural data will significantly shorten the time from validated target to early development candidate. In addition, Millennium expects this information to lead to compounds that will be more suitable for development, resulting in lower attrition rates and increased productivity.
Under the terms of the agreement, SGX retains certain rights to use structural information of non-proprietary targets on its own behalf, and SGX will have the opportunity to choose a validated drug target from a range of Millennium validated drug targets for its own drug discovery programs. In addition, Millennium will make an equity investment in SGX.
``We are delighted that Millennium has chosen us as a partner in structure-enabled drug discovery,'' said Dr. Tim Harris, President and CEO of SGX. ``Millennium has consistently set the standard for an innovative, genomics-based drug discovery company, and this collaboration is in keeping with that. No one has before engaged in such an extensive incorporation of structure early in the drug discovery process, on targets, target families and co-crystals in order to improve potency, selectivity and specificity. We expect this work will break new ground in using structure to create safer, more effective drugs.''
``We believe that Structural GenomiX's ability to rapidly generate high quality structural data will focus our technology platform further downstream, allowing us to better optimize lead compounds and generate early development candidates faster and in greater volume,'' said Michael R. Pavia, Ph.D., chief technology officer, Millennium Pharmaceuticals. ``Historically, structural determination has been a slow and methodical process which has limited its impact to selected targets. The advent of high throughput structure determination will significantly improve the speed and quality of target structure determination, allow for significant exploration of surrounding structural space to enhance compound selectivity and may enable earlier optimization of traits such as ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicology).''
Structural GenomiX
Structural GenomiX (SGX) is a drug discovery company utilizing a genomics-driven, high-throughput structure-based platform to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the drug discovery process. SGX's integrated experimental and computational technologies include advanced bioinformatics tools for target/anti-target selection and structure-based functional annotation, automation of molecular biology and protein biochemistry, high-throughput crystallization, protein structure prediction by comparative modeling and ab initio methods, synthetic and computational chemistry, and rapid co-crystal structure determination. SGX has a dedicated facility for the collection of macromolecular X-ray diffraction data at the Advanced Photon Source at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, the premier source of X-radiation for high-throughput structural biology. SGX is pursuing drug discovery in four principal areas: anti-infectives, protein kinases, nuclear hormone receptors and membrane proteins. SGX is headquartered in San Diego with additional locations in San Francisco and Argonne, IL.
Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Millennium, a leading biopharmaceutical company, applies its comprehensive and integrated science and technology platform for the discovery and development of breakthrough therapeutic and predictive medicine products, with a goal of delivering personalized medicine. Through the industrialization of this gene-to-patient platform, Millennium is also striving to accelerate the process of drug discovery and development. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Millennium currently employs more than 1,500 people.
Company Contact Media Contact
Structural GenomiX Noonan/Russo Communications
Linda S Grais, M.D., J.D. Emily Poe
Executive Vice President and Founder Account Executive
619-742-9397 212-696-4455 ext. 221
linda@stromix.com e.poe@noonanrusso.com
SOURCE: Structural GenomiX |
