De Novo Announces Drug Discovery Collaboration with Genzyme

De Novo Pharmaceuticals Ltd. has announced that it has entered into a drug discovery collaboration agreement with Genzyme whereby De Novo will apply its molecular structure generating technology to focus on a disease target of interest to Genzyme.

"We are very pleased to be working with Genzyme," said Philip Dean, Ph.D., CSO at De Novo.

"Using SkelGen, we will be designing for Genzyme new chemical classes of inhibitors to an important biological target implicated in multiple diseases," he added.

"This collaboration will enhance Genzyme's ability to discover cutting-edge therapeutics using a structure-based design approach," said Thomas Jozefiak, Ph.D., Senior Scientific Director, Chemical Research at Genzyme.

The core platform at De Novo is a suite of structure generating programs called SkelGen, which has been evaluated and co-developed by Roche.

With regard to the De Novo Technology, Philip added, "The core algorithm generates new molecular structures by the random assembly of small molecular fragments in situ."

"Ninety-per cent of the structures produced by SkelGen are novel and chemically tractable. This represents a significant advancement in the field of De Novo design and potential paradigm shift for drug discovery."