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BioSeek and UCB Establish Compound Evaluation Collaboration and Expand Previous Agreement
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BioSeek, Inc. has announced that it has entered into a new and expanded agreement with UCB, a global biopharmaceutical company based in Belgium.
Under the collaboration, BioSeek will, over the next year, both carry out broad-based profiling of selected UCB new chemical and biological entities, and guide lead optimization of a specific phenotypic hit previously identified by UCB and further characterized in BioMAP screens.
According to the terms of the agreement, BioSeek will receive various payments from UCB, including an upfront technology license fee, research funding, and preclinical and clinical milestone payments based on candidate advancement enabled by the BioMAP platform.
“UCB’s decision to expand its relationship with BioSeek is an important validation of our work and technology. Our 2007 collaboration identified specific areas of high interest to UCB where the BioMAP platform could be productively applied to UCB projects, and those form the basis of the new agreement encompassing two major programs in bioactive annotation and lead optimization,” said Michael C. Venuti, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of BioSeek. “The success of this collaboration demonstrates the broad utility of our BioMAP platform of predictive human biology screens to enhance and accelerate drug discovery.”
“Our previous project with UCB clearly showed that, by combining proper study design and attention to detailed follow-up, the BioMAP systems can be used to identify and advance promising molecules through preclinical evaluation in a way complementary to target-based drug discovery. By focusing on pharmacological outcome in a defined set of validated human cell-based screens, novel bioactivity can be detected, and anecdotally observed activity can be optimized. We look forward to working with UCB on these two major projects in the coming year,” added Dr. Venuti.
Under the collaboration, BioSeek will, over the next year, both carry out broad-based profiling of selected UCB new chemical and biological entities, and guide lead optimization of a specific phenotypic hit previously identified by UCB and further characterized in BioMAP screens.
According to the terms of the agreement, BioSeek will receive various payments from UCB, including an upfront technology license fee, research funding, and preclinical and clinical milestone payments based on candidate advancement enabled by the BioMAP platform.
“UCB’s decision to expand its relationship with BioSeek is an important validation of our work and technology. Our 2007 collaboration identified specific areas of high interest to UCB where the BioMAP platform could be productively applied to UCB projects, and those form the basis of the new agreement encompassing two major programs in bioactive annotation and lead optimization,” said Michael C. Venuti, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of BioSeek. “The success of this collaboration demonstrates the broad utility of our BioMAP platform of predictive human biology screens to enhance and accelerate drug discovery.”
“Our previous project with UCB clearly showed that, by combining proper study design and attention to detailed follow-up, the BioMAP systems can be used to identify and advance promising molecules through preclinical evaluation in a way complementary to target-based drug discovery. By focusing on pharmacological outcome in a defined set of validated human cell-based screens, novel bioactivity can be detected, and anecdotally observed activity can be optimized. We look forward to working with UCB on these two major projects in the coming year,” added Dr. Venuti.
