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Agreements

Date: 2012-04-16

Type of information:

Compound: Conformetrix’s proprietary NMR-based technology

Company: Conformetrix (UK) AstraZeneca (UK)

Therapeutic area:

Type agreement: R&D
collaboration

Action mechanism:

Disease:

Details: Conformetrix, a company specialized in optimising drug discovery and design, and AstraZeneca have signed a research collaboration agreement under which Conformetrix’s proprietary NMR-based technology will be applied across AstraZeneca’s pre-clinical therapeutic pipeline to enhance lead discovery and hit identification.
Conformetrix’s technology determines accurate three-dimensional structures - or conformations - of drug molecules in their bioactive states. This is achieved without the need for traditional structural information regarding the protein target of each drug and provides researchers with valuable information on how development-stage compounds are likely to interact with their targets. This new information should improve the efficiency and quality of the lead identification, lead optimisation and candidate selection stages of drug discovery programmes. Under the terms of the two-year collaboration, the technology will also be used to determine the bioactive conformations of naturally occurring ligands as templates for drug library enhancement and hit identification. The discovery programme will be managed by a joint AstraZeneca-Conformetrix research team.

Financial terms: In addition to an undisclosed upfront payment, Conformetrix will receive research funding and be eligible for milestones as certain targets are met.

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Is general: Yes