Milestone
Astex Therapeutics Ltd of Cambridge, has announced that it has achieved two scientific milestones in its drug discovery collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV. The milestones relate to Astex having successfully solved the 3-dimensional protein crystal structures of two novel drug targets. The achievement of each milestone has triggered a payment to Astex, but financial details were not disclosed.
The collaboration, announced in June 2008, is a two-year alliance for the discovery of novel drugs against two cancer drug targets. Astex is applying its proprietary fragment-based discovery approach, Pyramid, to generate novel drug molecules that are active against these disease targets. In addition, Astex granted a worldwide license to Janssen to develop and commercialise compounds arising from its selective Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor inhibitor programme.
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