Strategic Partnership

RNS Number : 2051M

e-Therapeutics plc

26 January 2009

 



Press Release

26 January 2009

e-Therapeutics plc

('e-Therapeutics' or 'the Company')

e-Therapeutics partners with Cresset BioMolecular Discovery Ltd ('Cresset')

 in drug discovery

e-Therapeutics plc (AIM: ETX), the drug discovery and development company, today announces it has entered into an agreement with UK-based Cresset BioMolecular Discovery Ltd, a specialist in molecular field technology. The initial focus of the collaboration will combine e-Therapeutics' world-leading computational platform, which identifies the impact of drug compounds on cells, with Cresset's advanced technology in chemical comparison, to deliver powerful drug de-risking and repositioning capabilities. The first project to be undertaken will be on pain treatment, which remains an area of significant unmet medical need.

Cresset has pioneered a 'molecular fields' approach to computational drug discovery which summarises key binding features and explains how active compounds with different structures can interact in a similar way with a protein active site. The combination of this platform with e-Therapeutics' analysis technology to assess the efficacy, safety and tolerance of drug candidates will enable the collaboration to significantly enhance the companies' screening and de-risking capabilities.

Commenting on the collaboration, the CEO of Cresset BioMolecular Discovery, Beatrice Leigh, commented: 'With this partnership, we are now perfectly positioned to begin in-house drug discovery and development programmes. We are excited to be working with e-Therapeutics in this way and look forward to using our combined expertise to generate safer, more effective medicines'.

Professor Malcolm Young, CEO of e-Therapeutics, said: 'This drug discovery partnership brings together two technology companies with complementary expertise, both at the forefront of their respective fields. We expect that this strong research and development partnership will lead to the development of promising new chemical entities and repositioned drugs across a wide range of therapeutic areas.'

 - ENDS -

For further information:

e-Therapeutics plc	www.etherapeutics.co.uk
Malcolm Young [e-mail]	[phone]
WH Ireland
David Youngman  [e-mail]	[phone]

Media enquiries:

Abchurch	www.abchurch-group.com [phone]
Heather Salmond [e-mail]	[phone]
Stephanie Cuthbert [e-mail]	[phone]
Simone Alves [e-mail]	[phone]

Notes to Editors

About e-Therapeutics

e-Therapeutics plc is a drug discovery and development company. It has developed proprietary computational systems to swiftly and accurately analyse and predict how medicines interact with cells in the body. This optimises the probability of identifying drug candidates with desirable efficacy and low toxicity. The Company applies its novel, systematic approach in three areas of activity: 

	Discovery of new de-risked drugs;
	Discovering novel uses for existing drugs; and
	Analysis of the interactions between different drugs.

Amongst e-Therapeutics' pipeline of compounds in development are an oral asthma treatment in Phase II clinical trials, a novel-mechanism antidepressant, also in Phase II clinical trials, novel antibiotics that have been shown to kill the 'superbug' MRSA, and a novel cancer chemotherapy that has been shown to kill malignant cells at safe doses in a very short time. The Company is currently in negotiations with a number of pharmaceutical companies and is progressing the preclinical and clinical development of these products. 

For further information on e-Therapeutics visit .

About Cresset BioMolecular Discovery

Cresset was founded on the basic scientific developments of eXtended Electron Distributions (XEDs) and Fields made by Dr Andy Vinter at Cambridge University. This expertise has allowed Cresset to pioneer an innovative approach to 3D computational drug discovery. Electrostatic (positive and negative), steric and hydrophobic 'molecular fields' provide an accurate representation of molecules, which is more closely aligned to a protein's viewpoint than the traditional atom and bonds ('bare bones') approach. These fields summarise key binding features and can explain how active compounds with quite different structures can make similar interactions with a protein active site. Compounds which are structurally diverse but show comparable activity have similar fields and hence similar binding properties. Chemical fields free chemists from the constraints of structure-based thinking, so they can discover new chemistry directions.

For further information on Cresset and molecular fields please go to: 

www.cresset-bmd.com/fields.shtml 

 

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