Hybrigenics renews oncology research contract with Servier

French pharmaceutical company Servier Laboratories, has renewed its contract with Hybrigenics, a spin-out from the Pasteur Institute in Paris, to validate the applicability of a confidential protease to the development of anti-cancer treatments. Under previous contract agreements with Servier Laboratories in 2006 and 2007, Hybrigenics identified a confidential ubiquitin-specific-protease (USP) that regulates a protein involved in cancer.  The nature of the protease has not been disclosed.

Hybrigenics’ research is focused on the role of USPs in the recycling of cancer-causing proteins, and has developed proprietary USP inhibitors, which have potential applications in cancer therapy. In collaboration with Sanofi-Aventis, it has developed inecalcitol, a chemotherapy for hormone-resistant prostate cancer.

Forcing oncoproteins to degrade by inhibiting their recycling is an anti-cancer strategy that Hybrigenics and Servier are looking to optimise. The new contract will aim to validate the involvement of a USP that regulates a specific protein involved in aparticular cancer, and eventually set up a high-throughput screening system to identify small molecules capable of inhibiting it.

Rémi Delansorne, CEO of Hybrigenics, said: "We are grateful to Servier Laboratories for their faithful trust and support over the years. Furthermore, this contract renewal shows that Hybrigenics' choice of USPs as original targets clearly differentiates us out from competition in the cancer research environment."

Bernard Marchand, Head of Research at Servier Laboratories, said: "This contract with Hybrigenics, a key player in this research field in the world, provides Servier Laboratories with the opportunity to explore an alternative mode of pharmacological intervention on a protein we have identified as of special interest in our own drug discovery programme in oncology."