Argenta Discovery Announces Second Two-Year Drug Discovery Collaboration Project with GenentechHarlow, UK 01 March 2007 - Argenta Discovery Ltd., the contract drug discovery and respiratory drug development company, today announced that it has expanded its existing drug discovery agreement with Genentech, Inc. to add a second two-year drug discovery collaboration project. Under the terms of the existing agreement, first announced in December 2005, scientists from the two companies will exploit Argenta's expertise in computer-aided drug design (CADD), medicinal chemistry, and biology to discover new chemical entities acting against a second undisclosed drug target defined by Genentech. Commenting on the agreement, Dr Christopher Ashton, Argenta's CEO, said, “We are delighted that Genentech has chosen to build upon our current excellent working relationship with an additional collaboration project. Our initial joint project has made good progress over the last year, and this new project expands our overall collaboration. We believe this is testament to Argenta bringing a breadth of drug discovery experience to bear on key Genentech research interests. It is gratifying to us that Argenta's determination to refine and broaden its integrated drug discovery capabilities should be rewarded with high calibre collaborations of this kind. Our objective is to continue to secure and retain high quality, long-term collaborations with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and today's announcement is one of several recent announcements which illustrate our success in realising this objective. We look forward to continuing this successful relationship with Genentech.” Financial terms of the collaboration have not been disclosed but the agreement does provide options to expand the relationship, including opportunities to pursue additional discovery projects. Notes to Editors Argenta Discovery was founded in August 2000. Its contract research division provides integrated drug discovery capabilities encompassing medicinal chemistry, CADD, biochemistry, in vitro screening and ADME to a range of leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide. Its industry experienced scientists deliver rapid hit finding capabilities and have the skills to discover, convert and optimise hits and leads into potential drug candidates quickly and effectively. Argenta Discovery has leading expertise in chronic respiratory diseases including Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Asthma. It is developing a number of internal proprietary programmes in COPD with the goal of taking these as far as Phase IIa proof of concept before partnering. In January 2007, the company announced a major research collaboration and licensing agreement with AstraZeneca to discover bronchodilators for COPD. Argenta employs approximately 120 people and is based in Harlow , Essex and Slough , Bucks, UK . See also www.argentadiscovery.com Contacts: Media: Nicki Brimicombe |
Argenta Discovery Limited is a company incorporated and registered in England with registered number 3671653 whose registered office and principal place of business is at 8/9 Spire Green Centre, Flex Meadow, Harlow, CM19 5TR, United Kingdom and whose VAT registration number is GB 848 2268 02.