Avicenna Biosciences and Molecure S.A. Sign Strategic Research Collaboration Agreement to Accelerate Discovery and Development of Small Molecule Drugs
2024年7月31日 - 9:00PM
ビジネスワイヤ(英語)
Molecure S.A. (‘Molecure’, SWE Ticker: MOC) and Avicenna
Biosciences, Inc. announced today that they have entered into a
strategic research collaboration to facilitate the discovery and
development of novel small molecule drugs targeting
ubiquitin-specific protease 7 (USP7), a deubiquitinase relevant in
a number of tumors. The collaboration will combine the extensive
expertise of Molecure related to drug discovery and biology of USP7
with Avicenna’s machine learning-driven medicinal chemistry
platform to identify novel drug candidates with superior
pharmaceutical properties.
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USP7 is an attractive target in cancer which regulates the
stability of crucial proteins involved in pathways relevant for
tumor suppression and immune response. Under the terms of the
agreement, Avicenna will design algorithms to identify new chemical
entities which inhibit USP7, and meet pre-specified pharmacological
criteria. Molecure will be responsible for synthesizing and
evaluating these new chemical entities and selecting one or more
for further development. Molecure retains the right to develop and
commercialize novel drug candidates resulting from the
collaboration.
Avicenna, under the risk-sharing model, will receive an upfront
fee and research funding, which will be contingent upon the
generated compounds meeting the established success criteria.
Additionally, if Molecure exercises the option to license the
generated molecules, Avicenna will be eligible for license fees and
will retain a specified share in the future revenues derived from
drug candidates developed by Molecure.
Marcin Szumowski, Molecure’s CEO said: “By combining Molecure’s
in-depth knowledge of this attractive, validated in vivo target
with Avicenna’s ML-driven medicinal chemistry platform, we intend
to generate superior drug candidates with optimal pharmacological
profiles for further preclinical and clinical development.”
Chris Meldrum, President & CEO of Avicenna, stated: “We have
been very impressed with the Molecure team, their deep expertise in
targeting USP7, and their efforts to deliver new treatment options
to patients with difficult-to-treat cancers. Avicenna welcomes the
challenge to transform chemical potential to biological and
clinical reality for this important target.”
About Molecure S.A.
Molecure S.A. is a biotechnology company that discovers and
develops drugs to the clinical stage, leveraging its own unique
expertise in medicinal chemistry and biology to search for and
develop first-in-class small-molecule drugs that, through direct
modulation of previously unexplored protein and RNA targets, may
provide therapies for many incurable diseases.
Molecure has generated a diverse portfolio of seven distinct
programs with support from leading academic research institutions
around the world, including Yale University, Rutgers University,
the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) in Ghent, the
University of Michigan and the International Institute of Molecular
and Cell Biology in Warsaw, Poland (MIBMiK).
The most advanced drug candidate developed by Molecure is
OATD-01, a first-in-class CHIT1 inhibitor for the treatment of
interstitial lung diseases such as sarcoidosis, idiopathic
pulmonary fibrosis and MASH. The second drug candidate is OATD-02,
an oral, selective, first-in-class, dual arginase inhibitor (ARG1
and ARG2) for the treatment of cancer, whose Phase I clinical trial
has begun with first patient administration in Q1 2023.
Molecure’s headquarters and laboratories are located in Warsaw
and Lodz. The company is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange
(ticker: MOC). Detailed information can be found at:
https://molecure.com/pl/
LinkedIn: Molecure | Twitter: @molecure_sa | YouTube: Molecure
SA
About Avicenna Biosciences
Avicenna was founded in 2020 by Drs. Thomas Kaiser and Pieter
Burger out of the Liotta Research Group at Emory University. The
company is on a mission to solve the intractable drug design
challenges that previously stopped drug candidates in their tracks.
Its machine learning-driven medicinal chemistry platform makes
lead-to-drug optimization faster, cheaper and more successful –
transforming sub-optimal clinical candidates into life-saving
drugs. Avicenna is backed by DCVC Bio. The company’s peer-reviewed
research has been published in outlets such as Journal of Chemical
Information and Modeling. For more information, visit
www.avicenna-bio.com and follow the company on LinkedIn.
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Avicenna Media Kerry Walker kerry@walkercomms.com