Fragment-based drug discovery
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HEIDELBERG—December 13, 2006—Graffinity Pharmaceuticals announced that Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals has chosen to exercise its option to significantly increase the number of targets screened by Graffinity as part of its global alliance. The expansion will mean additional technology access fees for Graffinity for the generation of multiple novel small molecule leads.
HEIDELBERG, Germany—Looking to build small-molecule drugs one piece at a time, Graffinity Pharmaceuticals and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals (BI) announced a research collaboration. Although financial terms were not disclosed, the deal will see Graffinity receive technology access fees and success payments for any candidates developed against a variety of BI targets.
Graffinity scientists will use a proprietary fragment-based approach, which includes chemical microarrays, to identify and develop small-molecule drug candidates. According to Mathias Woker, senior VP of business development, Graffinity's libraries contain about 20,000 fragments and 90,000 lead-like structures.
"Our fragment-based drug discovery platform and process are uniquely suited for challenging drug targets, since our drug fragment libraries, together with the proprietary label- and assay-free high-throughput imaging technology, allow us to generate quality hit structures for both known as well as novel modes of action, thus exploiting completely new avenues in chemical diversity space," he adds.
