Astex achieves second milestone in Alzheimer's drug discovery collaboration with AstraZeneca

19-Apr-2004

Cambridge,UK. Astex Technology, the fragment-based drug discovery company, announced that it has received the second milestone payment from AstraZeneca as part of its collaboration to identify novel drugs against a key protein target implicated in Alzheimer's disease.

The milestone is related to the selection and further development, by AstraZeneca, of specified molecules for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, identified as part of the collaboration, which commenced in March 2003.

Under the collaboration, Astex provided an initial series of small molecule inhibitors and has applied its high-throughput X-ray crystallography and Pyramida(TM) approach for fragment-based drug discovery against the target, to rapidly identify additional novel drug candidates.

"We are pleased the collaboration has been able to reach these key milestones against this important but challenging Alzheimer's disease target, and we have been particularly impressed by Astex's fragment based drug discovery capabilities," said Christof Angst, VP, CNS, AstraZeneca.

"I am delighted to announce the recognition of the second development milestone by AstraZeneca coming so soon after Astex achieved the first milestone in September last year. This further underscores Astex's capability in fragment-based drug discovery," commented Timothy Haines, Chief Executive of Astex. "Astex and AstraZeneca have worked together very effectively and we look forward to seeing the first novel compounds moving toward the clinical testing phase against this debilitating disease."

https://www.bionity.com/en/news/36754/astex-achieves-second-milestone-in-alzheimer-s-drug-discovery-collaboration-with-astrazeneca.html