About Argenta Discovery

Collaborations

Argenta Discovery is pursuing two distinct types of collaboration: strategic alliances based on its in-house proprietary respiratory programmes and fee-for-service agreements with a broad range of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Examples of ongoing strategic alliances:

• AstraZeneca
  A major discovery alliance to identify improved bronchodilators to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Under the terms of the agreement announced in January 2007, Argenta received a $21 million upfront payment plus further committed research funding and pre-clinical milestone payments. Teams of scientists from the two companies are collaborating to identify long acting muscarinic (M3) antagonists (LAMAs) and dual acting muscarinic antagonist-ß2 agonist (MABA) candidate drugs.
  
  
• Domantis, Cambridge, UK
  Under the terms of the deal announced in October 2004, fully human domain antibodies (dAbs) identified in Domantis' proprietary discovery programmes are being co-developed to yield innovative inhaled therapies. In vivo efficacy of a human dAb was successfully demonstrated in a COPD model in October 2005. Both groups will share revenues derived from dAb-based products. Domantis is a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline.
  
  
• Dr. Reddy's, Hyderabad, India
  An agreement for the joint development and commercialization of a novel approach to the treatment of COPD. Under the terms of the agreement, Dr. Reddy's and Argenta are collaborating to identify clinical candidates from a certain class of Dr. Reddy's' compounds for use as potential treatments for COPD. Both the parties will jointly develop the selected candidates from the pre-clinical stage up to Phase IIa (proof-of-concept).

Examples of recent fee-for-service agreements:

• Antisoma, UK
  Scientists from Antisoma and Argenta are working together to develop improved molecules for Antisoma’s programme of telomere targeting agents. During the course of the collaboration, Antisoma will utilise Argenta’s expertise in medicinal chemistry, computer-aided drug design, molecular biology, biochemistry, assay development and in vitro screening.
  
  
• AstraZeneca, US, Sweden and UK
  As part of a three-year collaboration, Argenta is providing discovery research capabilities to AstraZeneca. The most recently announced project involves Argenta scientists providing their expertise in medicinal chemistry to support drug discovery activities at AstraZeneca in Wilmington, DE.
  
  
• BioTie Therapies Corporation, Turku, Finland
  During a lead optimisation collaboration with BioTie Therapies Corporation, scientists from the two companies will exploit Argenta's expertise in medicinal chemistry, computer-aided drug design, and early ADME to advance one of BioTie's novel therapeutics programmes towards development candidate nomination.
  
  
• CellCentric, Cambridge, UK
  Under the terms of the agreement, scientists from the two companies will exploit Argenta's expertise in virtual screening, molecular biology, biochemical assay development and in vitro screening to discover inhibitors for potential epigenetic-related therapeutic targets.
  
  
• Corcept Therapeutics, Palo Alto, CA, USA
  In a comprehensive, multi-year collaboration with Corcept, Argenta is focused upon the discovery and optimisation of a second generation drug candidate within one of Corcept’s psychiatric disorder programmes.
  
  
• Genentech, San Francisco, USA
  In the course of a pair of two year drug discovery collaborations, scientists from Argenta and Genentech are applying their expertise in computer-aided drug design, medicinal chemistry, biology and ADME/PK to discover new chemical entities acting against undisclosed drug targets defined by Genentech.
  
  
• Novartis
  In a two-year drug discovery collaboration up to 18 Argenta scientists are working on a Novartis programme that centres on the search for new diabetes therapies. The deal also provides Novartis with access to Argenta’s other scientific disciplines.
  
  

Please click here for a summary of typical multidisciplinary projects that Argenta undertakes in hit identification, hit-to-lead and lead optimisation.