Tripos Extends Its COMT Inhibitor Program with CeNeS Pharmaceuticals

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Tripos, Inc. and CeNeS Pharmaceuticals plc have announced that they have extended their research agreement to develop catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) inhibitors to treat Parkinson's disease.
Tripos and CeNeS began this multiyear collaboration in 2003. Using Tripos' knowledge-driven chemistry process to investigate the inhibition of COMT with analogues of CeNeS' proposed leads, they succeeded in identifying several series of novel active compounds, thereby achieving a chemical breakaway from currently marketed COMT inhibitors.
Tripos and CeNeS are now jointly developing these lead series with a view to further optimizing in vitro and in vivo activity as well as their ADMET profile, thus addressing the known limitations associated with existing marketed therapies.
"Following on our previous successes, we are well positioned to continue progression through lead optimization and to deliver proof-of-concept data for one or more of our novel COMT inhibitors," said Dr. Gary Tilbrook, chemistry director for CeNeS.
"Our COMT discovery program has continued to perform to plan, and we are excited about its potential to deliver improved therapies for the treatment of Parkinson's disease."
"We are very pleased with the progress on this project," said Dr. Mark Allen, senior vice president and managing director of Tripos Discovery Research, Ltd., based in Bude, England.
"This partnership builds on each company's strengths, and we believe that it will continue to produce promising results."