AiCuris, 4SC Discovery and CRELUX Announce Drug Discovery Collaboration

4SC AG has announced that 4SC Discovery GmbH, CRELUX GmbH and AiCuris GmbH & Co. KG have started a drug discovery collaboration to identify and validate novel small molecule compounds targeting pathogen-specific interactions in infectious diseases.

The collaboration is a further proof for the innovative capacity and the high quality standard of the joint integrated drug discovery platform i2c ('idea-to-candidate'), operated by 4SC Discovery and CRELUX.

Based on i2c, CRELUX and 4SC Discovery will discover and optimize small molecule compounds with the goal to deliver high quality drug candidates for a novel anti-infectious therapeutic approach by AiCuris.

A virtual screening approach using 4SC's proprietary 4Scan® method will be performed to identify various inhibitors to the therapeutic target. Compounds identified as potential inhibitors of the respective target will be verified by using both, established assays at AiCuris and the INTRACT in vitro screening systems at CRELUX.

In the course of the further discovery process, protein structures of verified hits with the target will be solved by i2c to enable rational design and guide the further chemical optimization.

Prof. Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff, CEO of AiCuris comments: 'We are dedicated to fill our early pipeline with highly innovative next generation drugs against infectious diseases with high medical need and which are also active against resistant pathogens. These may be derived from in house research, from licensing or from collaborations.'

Dr. Holger Zimmermann, Managing Director and Chief Scientific Officer at AiCuris adds: 'Based on our good experience in collaborating with 4SC we expect to identify soon first promising hits for further evaluation in our screening cascades. This collaboration is an important contribution to our in house research efforts and supports our goal to discover highly efficacious drugs which help to solve major problems in treating infectious diseases.'

Dr. Michael Schaeffer, Executive Director Strategy and Business of CRELUX GmbH, comments: 'This collaboration is a further proof of the value i2c brings to its clients' drug discovery programmes. With Aicuris, we see a perfect fit of ideas, technologies and know-how and are especially pleased to have gained yet another innovative and reknowned biotech company from Germany as a partner. With this partnership, CRELUX and 4SC Discovery continue to build on their joint strategy to position themselves as premium solution providers to the global pharma and biotech industry covering the complete drug discovery value chain.'

Dr. Daniel Vitt, Managing Director of 4SC Discovery GmbH and Chief Scientific Officer at 4SC AG, comments: 'The selection of i2c as drug discovery platform for AiCuris is an important step in our strategy to become Europe's leading partner for innovative and high quality drug discovery projects. We are particularly delighted, since this new collaboration is built on our long-term trustful relationship and former successful collaborations between AiCuris and 4SC, now targeting next generation high therapeutic needs in antiinfective drug discovery.'

The i2c platform operates on a seamlessly integrated suite of technologies including virtual high throughput screening, molecular modelling, X-ray crystallography, in vitro and cell based screening, medicinal chemistry and pharmacology.

CRELUX and 4SC Discovery are offering integrated drug discovery solutions to clients from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry covering the entire value chain of early-stage pharmaceutical research and drug discovery.