Yissum spin-out seals deal with Teva

Research and development agreement

Yissum, the technology transfer arm of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said its subsidiary Jexys Pharmaceuticals signed a research and development agreement with Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd.

Under the agreement, Teva will finance Jexys’ R&D programme for the development of a high-throughput drug discovery platform and in return will receive a minority equity interest in the company. Following the completion of the programme, Teva will have the option to in-license five drug candidates discovered by Jexys.

The agreement is an extension of a deal signed between the two companies in October 2006.

Jexys Pharmaceuticals has developed a high-throughput drug discovery platform in yeast. The company, founded by David Engelberg from the Department of Biological Chemistry, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, takes advantage of the fact that the cellular biology of yeast has similarities to that of humans.

“The novel drug discovery platform developed by Jexys takes advantage of one of the most accessible and cost-effective biological model systems, namely yeast, in order to quickly and efficiently screen potential drug candidates to treat a host of human diseases,” said Nava Swersky Sofer CEO of Yissum. “We are excited that our subsidiary, Jexys, will collaborate with Teva in further developing its innovative and promising technology.”

“Teva has a long history of collaboration with the Hebrew University and Yissum, and we have faith that once more this collaboration will be fruitful for both sides,” said Aharon Schwartz, Vice President, Innovative Ventures, at Teva. “[The company] is constantly in search of new and promising technologies, and we believe that Jexys’ technology will help us reach our goals faster and with greater efficiency.”

The technology can be applied to a wide range of diseases caused by aberrant protein function, such as cancers, inflammatory disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. The yeast cells are engineered to express the aberrant proteins, which usually inhibit the growth of the yeast cells. Drugs that restore growth are singled out as promising candidates for preclinical testing. Generating the mutated yeast and growing them in large numbers is both quick and economical, allowing Jexys to screen thousands of candidate drugs at a fraction of the time and money needed in more traditional drug development processes.

Using the system, Jexys has isolated molecules that could treat inflammatory conditions by inhibiting the enzyme p38. The in vivo screening system ensures that the newly discovered compounds are not cytotoxic, are capable of crossing the cell membrane, and are specific.