Bio Screening Industry News

SAN DIEGO and BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 6 /PRNewswire/ — ChemDiv Inc., and
Euroscreen announced their partnership in the discovery and development of
drug candidates against a panel of chemokine receptors, a specific subset of
G Protein Coupled-Receptor (GPCR) targets involved in inflammation,
immunomodulation, and carcinogenesis. ChemDiv will contribute its expertise
in both synthetic and medicinal chemistry, whereas Euroscreen will develop
respective GPCR assays and insure the screening and general molecular biology
support of this joint venture.
“Collaboration with Euroscreen, a recognized world leader in the area of
GPCR Biology, further expands our capabilities in early drug discovery and
development. We are especially excited to use Euroscreen’s expertise in
chemokine receptors as it gives both parties the opportunity to develop
specific and dual modulators of this important class of targets. We expect
this alliance to strengthen our competitive position,” said Alexander
Kiselyov, VP Global Chemistry ChemDiv.
“The strategic alliance with ChemDiv is to capitalize on the strengths of
each partner. We anticipate that this dynamic relationship will result in the
discovery and development of proprietary modulators of chemokine receptors
amenable to further development into drug candidates,” said Dr. Francois
Roman, the Head of Drug Development R&D at Euroscreen.

About ChemDiv, Inc.
Drawing on a long heritage of small-molecule chemistry research as well as
world class pre-clinical biology resources, ChemDiv provides partners with
access to Discovery outSource(TM) a full service drug discovery capability
encompassing synthetic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, pre-clinical
development, diverse & focused screening libraries and global logistics.
Over the past 15 years, ChemDiv has developed strategic partnerships with
numerous major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies such as Merck KgaA,
Sanofi-Aventis, AstraZeneca, Dupont, Novo Nordisk and others. Similarly,
early adoption of collaborative research and development models with top
academic centers such as Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and Stanford Universities,
Burnham Institute, and Scripps Research Institute, as well as biotechnology
partners enables ChemDiv to implement novel biological targets, pioneering
assay systems and animal models. The opening of the Chemical Diversity
Research Institute in Moscow, a facility that houses state-of-art technology,
further expanded ChemDiv’s capability in discovery chemistry, biological
screening, animal testing, bionanalytical, chemo- and bio-informatics.
ChemDiv, Inc. is a privately held company based in San Diego, CA with
400 employees in its facilities worldwide. Further information can be found at
www.chemdiv.com.

About Euroscreen
Euroscreen is a world leader in G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). The
company integrates its research expertise in this area with its patented
high-throughput AequoScreen(TM) cellular assay platform to patent new GPCR
targets and drug candidates. The company is building a patent portfolio of
GPCR targets and novel drug leads for licensing to biopharmaceutical
companies, and to date has agreements with Cephalon, CyBio, Evotec OAI, GE
Healthcare, ICOS, Merck & Co, Pfizer, Solvay, Syngenta and UCB. Euroscreen
has also established collaborations with numerous academic centers for access
to licenses to help make available its broad menu of GPCR-based products
(recombinant cell lines and membrane preparations) and services (custom
screening and cloning).
Euroscreen has grown significant and strong patent positions to protect
many key drug targets for licensing. Such patents include CCR5,
GPR7/8 involved in metabolic defects and adult-onset obesity, purinergic
receptors (P2Y4, P2Y11 and P2Y13), ORL-1 and the non-GPCR SHIP2 for
type II diabetes. Euroscreen is able to offer rights to companies that
develop therapeutic drugs which act through the above-mentioned key target
modes of action. For more information regarding the Euroscreen’s portfolio,
please contact Dr. Vincent Lannoy.
Euroscreen is a privately held company based in Brussels, Belgium with
80 employees of which 50 are in R&D. More information can be found at
www.euroscreen.be

SOURCE ChemDiv Inc.

SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) has been a major killer in the last two years in July 2003; SARS had killed 774 people worldwide and infected a further 8,000. A collaborative group of researchers from China, Germany, Denmark and Poland have spent the past year screening more than 8,000 existing drugs to find those that could combat SARS and now have identified 15 existing drugs that have the potential to kill the virus that causes SARS. This three-year research collaboration is funded by the European Commission and was launched in 2004 to identify 50 compounds that have the potential to treat SARS.

A paper published last month by the group in the Journal of Virology showed one such compound called Cinanserin can stop the SARS virus from replicating. Interestingly cinanserin, was approved in the United States for clinical use in the 1960s to treat schizophrenia and other psychopathic diseases. Shen one of the researchers said that: ‘cinanserin could not form a SARS treatment on its own, but would need to be used in combination with other drugs’. As it is an old safe and cheap drug, it could be used widely for SARS patients in the developing world.

China is also working on vaccines against SARS epidemics. The first phase trials have already been completed in December and the second phase is to start soon as per a news release on 29 June.

Source: SciDev.Net

Bacteria colonize practically every habitat in the nature. Bacterial community of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is one of the major metabolic tissues of animals. Still, its species composition is not known, because methods that have been previously used for bacterial analysis do not capture the species present. The bacterial community within the GIT not only has intracommunity interactions, but it also interacts with the host tissues. For the host, it is essential to tolerate commensal bacteria and to recognize and fight intestinal pathogens. In addition to recognized pathogens, there are many functional bacterial groups, which produce metabolites considered harmful for the host. Such functional bacterial groups include protein-fermenting bacteria that produce toxic end products in their amino acid metabolism, which is why a high-protein diet is often considered unhealthy. Carbohydrates are preferred substrates for gastrointestinal bacteria, but in the distal colon, they may become depleted, and putrefaction becomes the dominating type of fermentation. This largely accounts for the health effects of slowly fermenting dietary fibers.

Microbial communities in the GIT of different animals have developed hand-in-hand with their digestion strategy. In monogastric animals, bacterial fermentation has concentrated in the lower GIT, whereas in ruminants bacteria are responsible for the initial digestion of the diet. Rumen-like sites with intense bacterial fermentation are found in most animals, but no other group of animals totally depends on bacteria. The response of rumen bacteria to feed components can be evaluated by an in vitro rumen simulation, which measures relevant fermentation parameters, such as the yield of bacterial biomass (protein) and volatile fatty acids (energy). In monogastric animals, it is essential that the host has measures to prevent bacterial competition for substrates in regions in which absorption takes place; the use of prophylactic antibiotics for production animals has aided this.

Availability of good methods for monitoring the total bacterial communities and their metabolism is a prerequisite for informative studies in the future.

more…

MONTREAL, Canada and TAVERNE, Switzerland, July 1 /CNW Telbec/ -
Chronogen Inc. (Montreal, Canada), a drug discovery company developing novel
therapeutics to treat age-related diseases and Inpharzam Ricerche (Taverne,
Switzerland), subsidiary of the international chemicals and pharmaceutical
company, Zambon Group S.p.A, jointly announced today that they have entered
into an R&D collaboration agreement with the aim of identifying small
molecules for the treatment of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases induced
by oxidative damage and/or lipids disorders.
Under this agreement, Chronogen Inc. will screen the library of Inpharzam
Ricerche using its proprietary, phenotype based, in vivo screening assays
(nematode C. elegans mutants). C.elegans is a unique in vivo model to screen,
in a rapid, efficient and cost-effective manner, drugs that modulate reactive
oxygen species (ROS) production or drugs that regulate lipids and lipoprotein
levels. Using this unique high throughput screening method, more than 35,000
original medicinal chemistry compounds and combinatorial chemistry molecules
will be tested.
“This collaboration with Inpharzam Ricerche will allow to rapidly
complete our existing panel of identified drug candidates to treat major age-
related diseases such as vascular complications of diabetes,
ischemia/reperfusion injury, dyslipidemia and atherosclerosis”, said Max
Fehlmann, Chronogen’s C.E.O. “These include ROS modulators, a new class of
antioxidants, as well as new non statin hypolipidemic drugs”.
Carlo Di Padova, Zambon Group’s R&D Director explains: “screening our
original library with this unique in vivo screening approach and bringing our
extensive experience in drug optimization of our DOiT Research Centre located
in Taverne, Switzerland, will contribute to efficiently discover and develop
new drugs to treat metabolic and cardiovascular diseases”.

About Chronogen Inc.

Chronogen Inc., a privately-held drug discovery company, is a leader in
the identification of drug targets that control metabolic pathways underlying
age-related diseases. Chronogen has developed unique rapid and reliable in
vivo assays aimed at the identification of small molecules affecting
cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. The mission of Chronogen is to design
and develop innovative small-molecule drugs to decrease the production of
Reactive Oxygen Species in oxidative stress related diseases including
Vascular complications of diabetes and reperfusion injury as well as Low
Density Lipoproteins in dyslipidemia.
More information on Chronogen Inc. can be found on:
http://www.chronogen.com

About Inpharzam Ricerche

Inpharzam Ricerche is the research center of Zambon Group, a leading
pharmaceutical and chemical multinational with a reputation for inventive and
innovative thinking, flexibility and customer focus. Operating directly on
three continents - Europe, South America and Asia - with over 2,300 employees
in 16 countries and consolidated sales in the region of (euro) 434m, Zambon is
a multicultural Group with close links to its local markets and the
international research community alike. These strengths, combined with
diversified research, product and distribution channel strategies, ensure that
the Zambon Group consistently outperforms its competitors and the market. More
information on Inpharzam Ricerche and Zambon Group S.p.A. can be found on:
www.inpharzam.ch and www.zambongroup.com

Source: SciDev.Net

[BEIJING] Chinese and European scientists have identified 15 existing drugs that have the potential to kill the virus that causes SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

One of the compounds, cinanserin, was approved in the United States for clinical use in the 1960s to treat schizophrenia and other psychopathic diseases.

The researchers, a collaborative group from China, Germany, Denmark and Poland have spent the past year screening more than 8,000 existing drugs to find those that could combat SARS.

Last month, they published a paper in the Journal of Virology showing that cinanserin can stop the SARS virus from replicating.

Since neither cinanserin nor the other compounds have been tested against SARS in animals or people, it is too early to say whether they could be developed as SARS treatments, says Shen Xu, a scientist at Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica and a member of the team that identified the compounds.

But Shen adds that it does mean cinanserin could be used as an emergency treatment in future SARS outbreaks.

The researchers showed that the compound works against SARS by blocking one of the virus’s enzymes, called 3CLpro. Over the past few years, it has emerged that 3CLpro plays a crucial role in the virus’s life cycle, making it one of the most promising targets for anti-SARS drugs.

Shen adds that cinanserin could not form a SARS treatment on its own, but would need to be used in combination with other drugs.

He suggests that since it is an old drug, that is both safe and cheap, cinanserin could be used widely for SARS patients in the developing world.

The three-year research collaboration, which is funded by the European Commission, was launched in 2004 to identify 50 compounds that have the potential to treat SARS.

According to Yang Huanming, director of the Beijing Institute of Genomics, says the project does not aim to develop the potential compounds into medicines. Instead, he says, the compounds could be offered to pharmaceutical firms to develop.

Before ebbing away in July 2003, SARS had killed 774 people worldwide and infected a further 8,000.

China is also working on methods to prevent new SARS epidemics. On 29 June, Chinese media reported that the second phase of clinical trials of a Chinese SARS vaccine will begin soon.

The first phase trials were completed in December

By Heidi Vogt / AP Business Writer

NEW YORK — Pfizer Inc. said Friday that it is abandoning development of two experimental drugs after they posted poor trial results — an HIV therapy that was in advanced studies and a treatment for asthma and lung disease that the company was developing with Germany’s Altana AG.

Altana’s American depositary shares tumbled more than 16 percent to a two year low of $47.70 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, Pfizer shares fell 54 cents, or 2 percent, to $27.04.

Pfizer said it dropped the capravirine HIV drug because two studies failed to show that it significantly helped patients. Specifically, the drug did not boost the effectiveness of standard triple-drug HIV therapies in patients who had failed to respond to available antiretroviral therapies, the New York-based drug maker said.

The company will return rights to the compound to its developer, Shionogi & Co. of Japan.

Pfizer is left with one HIV treatment in late-stage studies, a drug called maraviroc that is designed to block HIV from entering cells.

Separately, Pfizer ended a collaboration with Altana on its Daxas drug, a treatment for asthma and a lung disorder that is usually caused by smoking. Altana said early Friday that while the drug significantly improved lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, it did not reduce the accompanying shortness of breath or lasting cough. The company had set both of these measures as primary targets.

Pfizer spokesman Stephen Lederer said the company is not commenting on its reason for dissolving the partnership. The company is returning all rights to Daxas to Bad Homburg-based Altana, which said it will continue development and foresees no delay in U.S. clinical trials of the therapy.

“We are confident to have an investigational medicine with blockbuster potential,” Hans-Joachim Lohrisch, the head of Altana’s pharmaceuticals unit, said in a conference call. He said the company has a “strong financial basis to do it alone” but may look for another partner later in the development process.

Last year, Altana delayed its application for U.S. approval of Daxas, and said slow patient recruitment was hampering the process. A number of similar products are currently in development by rivals and there is competition for patients for the necessary trials.

Lederer said Pfizer has not disclosed any other treatments in its pipeline for the lung disorder.

“Pfizer does have a huge and growing pipeline,” Lederer said. “When we last gave an update we talked about 222 development programs … and it’s grown by 20 percent in two to three years.

“You do expect some of those to not reach the market, but this is a risky business.”

Source: The Detroit News Health

On a warm Monday afternoon in early February, most of the members of Robin Hood Ventures, a Philadelphia angel investing group, are gathered in a conference room in a building in an industrial park in Wayne, Pa. The building is owned by Safeguard Scientifics, a venture capital firm that has co-invested with Robin Hood on a number of deals.

Chris Cashman, CEO of Protez Pharmaceuticals, is in the lobby, waiting to be called in. Dressed in a black suit, blue shirt, and conservative red tie, he resembles a less gregarious George W. Bush. Protez is developing several drugs that fight bacteria that have become resistant to existing drugs. Cashman is putting together a B round of financing that he thinks will total $10 million to $15 million, and he’s hoping to get some bridge financing from Robin Hood — money that will tide him over until the B round is complete. “If all my timing comes together, I’m gonna be fine,” he says later. “But in case there’s a hiccup that costs me a month or two on the financing, then this is where the Robin Hood bridge could come in and help the company.”

more…