DIREVO and Pfizer collaborate on therapeutic proteases
DIREVO Biotech AG announced the signing of a collaboration agreement with Pfizer, Inc., New York, to develop therapeutic proteases for different targets as potential treatments for various diseases. Direvo will apply its protein-engineering capabilities to create novel proteases with engineered specificity for these targets.
Under the terms of the agreement, Direvo will use its protein engineering expertise to discover and optimize preclinical candidates. Pfizer will then be responsible for the development and marketing of the respective compounds. Direvo will receive payments upon reaching certain research and development milestones as well as royalties for any resulting product that reaches the market.
"We are proud that Pfizer has chosen Direvo as a partner for development of an exciting novel class of protein drugs," said Dr. Thomas von Rueden, CEO of Direvo. "This collaboration is an important commercial validation for Direvo's proven world-class technology-platform for the generation of optimized proteases with engineered specificity for various indications" he added.
Proteases are a class of powerful therapeutic agents already used in the treatment of a variety of conditions. They are naturally occurring enzymes responsible in the human body for proteolysis, the process by which proteins are broken down into individual amino acids. Therapeutically, they can be engineered so as to be able to selectively proteolyse pathogenic agents such as tumor cells, viruses or bacteria.
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