Bio Screening Industry News

Hamburg, Germany | Oxford, UK | Oslo, Norway - Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT) announced today that Spermatech A/S has chosen them as a partner to identify small molecule therapeutics for their pharmaceutical discovery project.

Through the study of the physiology of sperm motility, more specifically of “rapid swimmers” that cause fertilisation, Spermatech have identified bio-logical targets that could be exploited in the development of non-hormonal reversible male contraceptives. On this basis, Evotec and Spermatech have defined a strategy for a tailored drug discovery project. Evotec will apply its expertise and proprietary technologies in assay development, high throughput screening and NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) screening to identify inhibitors of the sperm specific target protein. The screening will be performed with Evotec’s screening library of 250,000 drug-like compounds. Compounds will be identified that reduce sperm motility and will be used in the development of non-hormonal reversible male contraceptives at Spermatech. In addition, compounds that promote target activity may be evaluated as supporters of male fertility.

Dr Mark Ashton, Executive Vice President Business Development Services at Evotec, said: “We are extremely pleased that Spermatech has selected Evotec for this interesting project. It will allow us to use our com-bined technologies in assay development, high-throughput screening and NMR screening to identify the most promising candidates in the therapeutic field. Evotec’s highly diverse compound library is a good starting point to identify such active molecules and the additional results from NMR investi-gations of the hits with the target protein will provide the medicinal chemists with useful information to support subsequent drug design.”

“We were impressed by Evotec’s highly specialized and integrated capabili-ties. The collaboration will provide us with access to state-of-the-art assay development and screening technology and expertise together with a high quality library of small molecules. We are confident that this will provide an excellent starting point and valuable information to progress the molecules into more advanced stages. We really appreciated that during the initial scientific discussions of the project Evotec clearly demonstrated a results-oriented spirit in support of our project:” commented Eirik Næss-Ulseth, Chief Executive Officer, Spermatech.

Forward looking statements
Information set forth in this report contains forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the anticipated benefits of Evotec’s products and services, the payments that Evotec may receive under its collaboration agreement with Spermatech, the anticipated timing and results of Evotec’s clinical and pre-clinical programs, and other statements that are not historical facts. Evotec cautions readers that any forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and that actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information as a result of risks and uncertainties. These include risks and uncertainties relating to: Evotec’s ability to complete the merger because conditions to the closing of the merger may not be satisfied; the failure to successfully integrate the businesses of Evotec and Renovis; unexpected costs or liabilities resulting from the merger; the risk that synergies from the merger may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected; disruption from the merger making it more difficult to maintain relationships with customers, employees or suppliers; competition and its effect on pricing, spending, third-party relationships and revenues; the need to develop new products and adapt to significant technological change; implementation of strategies for improving internal growth; development, use and protection of intellectual property; general worldwide economic conditions and related uncertainties; future legislative, regulatory, or tax changes as well as other economic, business and/or competitive factors; and the effect of exchange rate fluctuations on international operations.

The risks included above are not exhaustive. The Registration Statement on Form F-4 filed by Evotec with the Securities and Exchange Commission contains additional factors that could impact the combined company’s businesses and financial performance. The parties expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in the parties’ expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

New Hope, PA — (SBWIRE) — 10/10/2007 — Bucks County’s Institute for Hepatitis and Virus Research (IHVR) and BioLeap have entered into a collaboration to develop new therapeutic compounds for the treatment of Hepatitis C. Up to 50% of patients treated with current standard therapies do not respond adequately and often suffer serious side effects from the drugs. Thus there is a critical need for new tools to treat this disease. By combining BioLeap’s leading edge computational fragment-based design capabilities with the IHVR’s extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of viral diseases, the collaboration will result in new classes of lead drug molecules with novel modes-of-action.

Of particular interest to the IHVR is BioLeap’s proprietary technology that rapidly calculates the free energies, or affinities of interactions between small molecular fragments of potential drugs and biomolecular structures of the proteins they will target, displaying the distribution and orientation of these fragments. This information provides a unique insight into how small molecules bind into key protein binding sites that cannot be achieved from the static crystal structure alone, or from methods that can only measure the enthalpic properties of binding. In addition to lead discovery, the quantitative free-energy based analysis of protein-drug-fragment interactions adds significant value to the lead optimization process. In combination, this proprietary approach provides chemists and biologists the information they need to assemble, fragment by fragment, a completely new molecule that not only optimally binds to the targeted protein site but also has properties desirable in a drug, including solubility and bioavailability.

Commenting on the collaboration, BioLeap’s Gerry Evans, Executive Vice President of BioLeap, noted: “Dr. Tim Block and his team at the IHVR are renowned for their work in this field. We are very excited by the opportunity to focus our combined expertise on this important target.”

Dr. Tim Block, president of the IHVR, is enthusiastic about the prospects for this collaboration. “One approach in discovering new treatments is the time and labor intensive process of screening tens or hundreds of thousands of molecules from compound libraries. BioLeap’s technology provides a potential shortcut by eliminating the need to screen compound libraries, while significantly broadening the field of chemical diversity. The molecules designed by BioLeap are not limited by what is present in any compound library. This greatly increases our odds of finding a potential drug that precisely targets the hepatitis C virus and that will not easily succumb to viral resistance. Once BioLeap has identified several candidate molecules, our scientists will test their effectiveness on the hepatitis C virus. Based on these results, we will repeat this iterative process until we have found the ideal drug.”

About the Institute for Hepatitis and Virus Research:
Established as the research arm of the Hepatitis B Foundation, the mission of the Institute for Hepatitis and Virus Research is to use discovery science to find new therapies for viral hepatitis and liver cancer; to advance its research discoveries through traditional scholarship and educational opportunities; to nurture biotechnology through technology transfer and new company formation; and to promote public health outreach programs to improve the quality of life for those with viral hepatitis.

About BioLeap:
Bioleap is a leader in computational fragment-based drug design. The company’s proprietary design technology and process successfully addresses one of the biggest problems in preclinical drug discovery: limited chemical diversity of compound libraries. Development collaborations span a broad spectrum of target proteins including: kinases, nuclear hormone receptors, metalloenzymes, and metalloproteases.

(PRLog.Org) – Oct 17, 2007 – MONROVIA, CA – Dr. Stephen K. Burley, Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice-President Research at SGX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. located in San Diego, CA will give the Keynote presentation at GTCbio’s Drug Design & Lead Discovery conference – one of six tracks at the 3rd Modern Drug Discovery & Development Summit on November 28-30, 2007 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport.

Dr. Burley’s presentation will cover fragment-based discovery of selective, orally bioavailable tyrosine kinase inhibitors for targeted treatment of human cancers with examples from SGX’s FAST™ (Fragments of Active Structures) platform.

The fragment-based drug discovery platform utilizes high-throughput X-ray crystallography for lead identification/optimization. The process exploits crystallographic screening to detect, visualize and identify small ligands (MW 150-200) that are bound to the target protein. Each member of the FAST™ fragment/scaffold library was selected to be amenable to rapid chemical elaboration at two or three points of chemical diversity using parallel organic synthesis. Initial lead optimization involves using SGX’s knowledge of the co-crystal structure of the target-fragment complex and advanced computational chemistry tools to guide synthesis of small focused linear (one-dimensional) libraries. These linearly elaborated fragments/scaffolds are then evaluated with in vitro biochemical and cellular assays and co-crystal structure determinations. Thereafter, optimal variations at each point of chemical diversity are combined to synthesize focused combinatorial (two- or three-dimensional) libraries that are again examined with assays and crystallography. (The potential chemical diversity of the fully elaborated FAST™ fragment/scaffold library far exceeds 160 million compounds.) Active compound series are prioritized for further medicinal chemistry and compound development efforts using the results of in vitro and in vivo ADME and in vitro toxicology studies. Successful applications of the FAST™ fragment-based lead discovery/optimization process will be presented for a portfolio of well validated oncology targets.

The 3rd Modern Drug Discovery & Development Summit features over 150 speakers participating in 6 concurrent conferences, 6 study sessions and 3 pre-conference workshops. Tracks include Biological Therapeutics, Drug Delivery Technology, Translational Medicine, Drug Design and Lead Optimization, Emerging Targets, and Pharmaco – Kinetics, Dynamics, Genomics and Genetics. For more information, visit www.gtcbio.com.

CORNWALL, England and MALVERN, Pa., June 1 /PRNewswire/ — Key Organics Ltd (”Key”) and Reaction Biology Corporation (”RBC”) today announced that they have teamed up to provide a new library screening format to customers. Beginning this summer, the entire Key Bionet library of 37,500 diverse drug-like compounds will be offered for “rental” screening on RBC’s DiscoveryDot(TM) platform. For the first time, customers will be able to screen the Key library without having to purchase it outright.

“While we have many large pharma clients who wish to purchase compounds directly, we see an unmet need in smaller pharma and biotech companies that want to screen one or more of their targets without investing in a library purchase,” said Colin Piper, Business Development Manager for Key. “RBC’s platform gave us an economical way to reach these potential customers. Now researchers who do not have a budget for library purchases can still afford library screening.”

The Key library will be screened locally at RBC’s lab facilities in Malvern, PA. RBC will reformat the library to its microarray-based platform. “Our nanoliter-scale screening process means that we can we offer lower costs to customers, while our partnership with Key provides a clear path to additional chemistry expansion,” said Tom Festa, National Sales Manager for RBC.

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About Reaction Biology Corporation

Reaction Biology, based in Malvern, Pa., provides high throughput screening services to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. The company uses a patent-pending combination of technologies to perform screening at the nanoliter scale, while preserving quality, speed and simplicity. Combining genomics microarray printing technology and picoliter aerosol deposition, RBC has commercialized a novel technology that drives HTS to new levels of simplicity and efficiency. www.reactionbiology.com

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About Key Organics Ltd.

Key Organics Limited was formed in 1986 to supply schemes of novel, benzenoid and heterocyclic chemistry to its customers under confidentially agreements. During Key’s growth over the last 20 years, custom and contract synthesis and lead optimisation programmes for clients worldwide have become an increasingly important part of its business. The Company is based at its own well-equipped multi-lab site in Camelford, Cornwall, UK. Key Organics employs Graduate and Ph.D. chemists, including medicinal chemists, with experience in a wide range of chemical techniques and technologies. Key Organics is able to supply mg to kg quantities of compounds to a high specification. www.keyorganics.ltd.uk

San Ramon, CA, May 8, 2006 - Elsevier MDL, producer of the MDL® Available Chemicals Directory and MDL® Screening Compounds Directory databases, and Key Organics Ltd., a leading supplier of screening compounds and chemical building blocks, have partnered in an effort to provide improved access to timely, accurate information for chemical sourcing and procurement for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemistry researchers.

Through its Bionet Research Intermediates catalog, Key Organics supplies novel building blocks for customers to utilize within their discovery chemistry programs. “By working closely with Elsevier MDL, we’re able to ensure that customers are viewing accurate information in Available Chemicals Directory, the most widely used sourcing database,” says Dr. Colin Piper, Business Development Manager, Key Organics.

“Chemists rely on the unmatched coverage of MDL Available Chemicals Directory to find compounds from suppliers, including specialty suppliers, from around the globe,” said Trevor Heritage, Senior Vice President and Chief Science Officer at Elsevier MDL. “For this reason, currency and accuracy are paramount. Our partnership with Key Organics facilitates regular updates of their latest products, including unique compounds that aren’t available elsewhere.”

The partnership between the companies includes an exchange of information that makes it easy and quick for mutual customers to order products from Key Organics using the MDL number from the databases.

The structure-searchable Available Chemicals Directory and the Screening Compounds Directory databases from Elsevier MDL compile detailed product and pricing information for millions of chemical products from hundreds of suppliers around the globe. The databases are accessible via the online DiscoveryGate® platform (allowing researchers to view chemical sourcing information linked with synthetic methodology, bioactivity, metabolism, toxicity, and health and safety information) and are available for in-house installation. Researchers can also leverage the value of Available Chemicals Directory and close supplier relationships with companies like Key Organics through the new MDL® Logistics application, a cradle-to-grave solution for sourcing reagents and managing in-house chemical inventories.

About Key Organics Ltd.

Key Organics was formed in 1986, supplying schemes of novel small-molecule chemistry to customers under confidentiality agreements. Over the last 20 years Key has provided companies worldwide with screening compounds, building blocks and chemistry services. In recent years custom and contract synthesis and lead optimization programs have become an increasingly important part of Key Organics business for clients worldwide. Based at a well-equipped multi-lab site in Camelford, Cornwall, UK, Key Organics employs graduate and Ph.D. chemists, including medicinal chemists, with experience in a wide range of chemical techniques and technologies. Key Organics is able to supply milligram to kilogram quantities of compounds to a high specification. For more information visit www.keyorganics.ltd.uk.

About Elsevier MDL

Elsevier MDL provides informatics, database and workflow solutions that accelerate successful life sciences R&D by improving the speed and quality of scientists’ decision making. Researchers around the world depend on Elsevier MDL for innovative and reliable discovery informatics software solutions and services augmented by 400 Elsevier chemistry and life sciences journals and related products. For more information, visit www.mdl.com. Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. For more information visit www.elsevier.com.

Elsevier is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc, a world-leading publisher and information provider. Reed Elsevier’s ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange). For more information visit www.reedelsevier.com.

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MDL, DiscoveryGate and Available Chemicals Directory are registered trademarks or trademarks of MDL Information Systems, Inc. (‘Elsevier MDL’) in the United States. All rights reserved. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

October 17, 2005

TIMTEC INC, Delaware—TimTec Inc. is expressing customer and business partner appreciation as the company marks 10-years anniversary on the market of early drug-discovery.

Ten years in business, TimTec has matured into an internationally recognized expert in comprising diversity and targeted library collections tailored to fit drug discovery trends. Presently the company features its premier libraries: grand in diversity screening collection ActiMol-25K, 50K, or 70K; drug-like and diverse in chemotypes ActiProbe-10K; attractive in price and value ScreenStart-5K; Natural Product Library of pure compounds and plant extract; and targeted libraries (Kinase Modulators, GPCR Ligands, Anti-infectives, Potassium Channel Modulators, and Protease Inhibitors).

TimTec maintains extensive network of partners and suppliers worldwide to ensure the delivery of best products and services to its customers. MyriaScreen Diversity Collection of compounds with distinct drug-like properties is the successful result of the collaboration with Sigma-Aldrich Corporation.

TimTec , Inc. evolved from a venture started by the Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry (ZIOC) in Russia in the late 1980’s. Tremendous growth opportunities in the bio-based industry prompted the management to establish operations in U.S. and expand further servicing customers world-wide. In 1995 the company incorporated in DE. During this timeframe the company had grown its product lines to include organic and synthetic compounds for HTS, building blocks, natural products, biotinylation reagents, specialty chemicals, chromatography columns, packing material, and chemical database management software. TimTec offers custom synthesis, quality control, and full service compound management services. TimTec goes on servicing bio-based industry research always remaining flexible to accommodate custom needs and requirements.

For further information please contact:

TimTec Inc
301 A Ruthar Drive
Newark DE 19711
Tel 302 292 8500
Fax 302 292 8520
info@timtec.net

http://www.timtec.net
http://www.buyreagents.com

TimTec and Sigma-Aldrich (NASDAQ:SIAL) are pleased to announce the availability of the MyriaScreen Diversity Collection of drug-like screening compounds produced in collaboration, as a result of careful evaluation, filtering, and refinement of selections from each of our screening compound collections. The MyriaScreen Diversity Collection is comprised of 10,000 high-purity screening compounds handpicked to maximize chemical diversity while maintaining drug-likeness.

The MyriaScreen Diversity Collection was assembled from a pool of over 300,000 screening compounds using a combination of filters, diversity predictors, and manual selection. The resulting 10,000 compounds are drug-like, chemically diverse, and amenable to follow-up chemistry and optimization. The collection is well suited for researchers that are looking for a small, cost-effective, ready-to-screen set of high-quality screening compounds.
“MyriaScreen will complement our customers’ existing screening collections and jump-start new collections by quickly adding interesting chemotypes,” said Michael Earley, Product Manager, Drug Discovery, Sigma-Aldrich. “Our collaboration with TimTec, Inc. resulted in a high-quality library that our customers will find useful.”

About Sigma-Aldrich

Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company. Our biochemical and organic chemical products and kits are used in scientific and genomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and chemical manufacturing. We have customers in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals and in industry. Over one million scientists and technologists use our products. Sigma-Aldrich operates in 34 countries and has 6,000 employees providing excellent service worldwide. We are committed to the success of our Customers, Employees and Shareholders through leadership in Life Science, High Technology and Service.

To request information about MyriaScreen, please click here.

Forward Inquiries to:
Mrs. Kelley Euchner, 800-521-8956
Mr. Timothy Sommer, 314-286-7768

About TimTec

TimTec Corporation is a privately held company located in Newark Delaware, USA. It was founded in 1995 and began its work in the areas of acquisition and distribution of synthetic organic and natural compounds, custom synthesis, and laboratory equipment to become a full service partner for drug discovery. TimTec has established a global network of thousands of scientists from research centers around the world. The company has developed strong in-house expertise assembling general and targeted library collections for variety of research purposes. International customers include major pharmaceutical, biotech, agricultural, and educational companies and institutions, which use TimTec products for research and development programs.

For further information please contact:
TimTec Inc
301 A Ruthar Drive
Newark DE 19711
Tel 302 292 8500
Fax 302 292 8520
info@timtec.net
http://www.timtec.net