Newcastle drug company e-therapeutics says it has received cash payments having reached a set of milestones with a key European partner.
In an update to investors, the firm said it had made significant progress in its work with Belgian company Galapagos NV in searching for medicines for diseases with large unmet medical needs, primarily in inflammation and fibrosis.
The partnership has seen e-therapeutics identify "hit" compounds - the molecules that show a desired activity - using its proprietary computational discovery platform and which have been validated by Galapagos via experiments.
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E-therapeutics says its collaboration with Galapagos has achieved its goal of identifying potential therapeutic strategies in a specific area of biology associated with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a condition where the lungs become scarred and breathing is difficult.
Further identification of "hits" and targets will be decided by Galapagos according to its strategic priorities, e-therapeutics said.
Under the terms of the agreement, e-therapeutics is eligible to receive additional milestone payments through pre-clinical and clinical development, regulatory as well as commercial milestones. It also remains free to explore partnering opportunities in all other areas of biology relating to IPF and fibrosis.
Ali Mortazavi, chief executive officer of e-therapeutics, said: "We are delighted to report significant progress on our collaboration with Galapagos, focused on the identification of both targets and small molecules in IPF.
"This constitutes further recognition of the impact of our computational platform in an area of high unmet medical need. Our proprietary drug discovery platform can unlock indications, therapeutic areas and mechanisms that are challenging to carry out discovery in and shed light on complex human biology, significantly increasing the efficiency of the R&D process at the foundational stages."
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