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Morphochem and The Genetics Company: successful resolution of X-ray
structure of ß-secretase with a novel inhibitor compound
Munich (Germany), 4th
July 2005… The
Genetics Company, Inc., a privately
held drug discovery and development company focusing on research, development
and commercialization of products for the diagnosis, monitoring and therapy of
patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, and Morphochem
AG, a leader in the evolutionary discovery of small molecule drugs have
announced that they have successfully achieved an important milestone in their
research collaboration using Morphochem’s structural biology tools to support
the ß-secretase program of The Genetics Company.
Morphochem applied its protein expression,
purification, crystallization and structure determination capabilities, all
part of Morphochem’s MOREsystem®, to generate biostructural information for
further optimization of inhibitor compounds against ß-secretase identified by
The Genetics Company as potential new therapeutic agents for Alzheimer's
Disease.
Commenting on the collaboration, Dr Sijmen de
Vries, Chief Executive Officer of Morphochem said: "We are delighted that
Morphochem could rapidly and successfully provide the necessary tools to The
Genetics Company for this very challenging target. It provides further
validation to Morphochem’s technology platform and underlines the importance
of our biostructural tools for developing novel lead compounds against
important disease-related targets. We are well placed to explore such
collaborations with other biotech companies to help drive drug discovery
programs."
Benno Schindelholz, Manager of The Genetics
Company's ß-secretase program, said: “This collaboration with Morphochem will
be a major step for the further development of The Genetics Company's small
molecule ß-secretase inhibitors into new therapeutic agents for Alzheimer's
Disease treatment. The structural information provides new insights and
understanding of our lead compounds and will help to optimize the lead
candidates in this program."
-ends-
Notes:
Morphochem AG (www.morphochem.com)
a privately owned company based in Munich and Basel has developed a unique and
highly integrated fast chemical genomics Drug Discovery Engine that it is
applying in several 3th party research programs and for building its own fully
owned pipeline. The current lead products in this pipeline; MCM 17 a novel
oral anti-thrombotic (Factor Xa inhibitor) and MCB3837 a unique OxaquinÒ Dual
Action IV Hospital Antibiotic are planned to enter Clinical Trials towards the
end of 2005.
In addition, as the fast Discovery Engine enables “Fast Follower” development
projects on “hot targets”, in addition, the Morphochem pipeline also contains
a number of original lead- stage projects against various proven targets.
The Genetics Company (www.the-genetics.com)
is a dedicated team of entrepreneurs and scientists focusing on the research,
development and commercialization of innovative products for the diagnosis,
therapy and therapy monitoring of patients suffering from neurodegenerative
disease and cancer. In addition to a set of worldwide unique diagnostic kits
and research tools for the diagnosis and monitoring of patients suffering from
Alzheimer's disease (AD), the Company has identified small molecule inhibitors
of BACE (beta-amyloid converting enzyme). The Company has furthermore
identified small molecule inhibitors of two proprietary targets within the Wnt-pathway,
which is believed to play a crucial role in colon cancer. Headquartered in
Zurich-Schlieren, Switzerland, the Company currently employs 30 people.
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