Collaboration Exploits Cellzome's World-Leading Proteomics Technology in
Epigenetics
CAMBRIDGE, England and HEIDELBERG, Germany, March 10, 2010 /PRNewswire/
-- Cellzome today announced that it has formed a second strategic alliance
with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). This new collaboration gives GSK exclusive access
to Cellzome's proprietary Episphere(TM) technology in the emerging field of
epigenetics as applied to immunoinflammatory disease. Epigenetic mechanisms
play a key role in controlling immune cell differentiation and inflammatory
gene expression during an excessive inflammatory response.
Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will work together using
Cellzome's Episphere(TM) technology platform, to identify selective
small-molecule drug candidates against targets from four different epigenetic
target classes. The companies will share operational responsibility for the
programs until identification of drug candidates, at which stage GSK will
assume responsibility for any further preclinical and clinical development
and commercialisation.
Under the financial terms, Cellzome will receive an upfront payment of
EUR33 million, comprising technology access fees and the purchase of equity.
In addition, Cellzome is eligible for milestone payments and tiered royalties
for each programme. Milestone payments under this collaboration could reach
over EUR475 million if all programmes under the alliance are successfully
developed and commercialised.
Tim Edwards, Chief Executive Officer of Cellzome, said: "We are delighted
to form another major alliance with GSK, using our leading technology and
people to find transformative medicines in this exciting field of biology.
Combining forces with GSK will accelerate the development of new
anti-inflammatory drugs for the benefit of patients."
About Cellzome
Cellzome is a privately-owned drug discovery and development company, and
a leader in the use of chemical proteomics technologies to identify a new
generation of drug candidates for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.
Our pipeline of small-molecule therapeutics is driven by Kinobeads(TM), a
proprietary technology for screening and profiling kinases in their
physiological context. We have developed a new technology, called
Episphere(TM) to address epigenetic targets in disease-specific protein
complexes. Our goal is to identify oral therapeutics for inflammatory
diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory
bowel disease.
In addition to the alliance with GSK in the field of epigenetics,
Cellzome has another strategic alliance with GSK to discover, develop and
market kinase-targeted therapeutics to treat inflammatory disease and an
alliance with Johnson & Johnson focused on the discovery of novel medicines
for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
Cellzome's holding company is domiciled in the US and it employs about 90
people at its two R&D laboratories in Cambridge, UK and Heidelberg, Germany.
To learn more about Cellzome, please visit the website:
http://www.cellzome.com.
About Episphere(TM) and epigenetics
Episphere(TM) is a chemical proteomics technology for the discovery of
novel drugs directed against targets involved in epigenetic regulation. The
technology allows the screening and profiling of inhibitors of epigenetic
targets in their native environment, directly in the lysate of cells and
tissues and can also differentiate between the complexes these targets
operate in. The term epigenetics refers to heritable changes in gene
expression and phenotype caused by mechanisms other than changes in DNA
sequence. One major mechanism is the specific enzymatic modification of
histone tails, which affects the packaging of DNA into chromatin and through
that controls the transcription of specific genes. Enzymes, such as histone
deacetylases (HDAC) or methyltransferases (HMT) can change the modification
of the histone tails and therefore change the 'histone code'. Dysregulation
of these modifications is thought to play a central role in cancer and in
chronic degenerative diseases like neurological and autoimmune disease. The
enzymes which carry out these histone modifications are part of large
multifunctional protein complexes, which represent attractive novel targets
for drug discovery.
SOURCE Cellzome
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