Lexicon and Cetek Enter Natural Products Drug Screening and Technology Agreement

Lexicon Genetics Incorporated and Cetek Corporation have announced an agreement under which Cetek will provide Lexicon with a library derived from natural products for use by Lexicon in drug discovery.

Cetek will also utilize its natural products chemistry technologies and chemical biology and scale-up capabilities to isolate and identify compounds with activity against targets screened by Lexicon.

Under the agreement, Lexicon will screen Cetek's premier natural products library, containing 50,000 samples, against a specified number of targets selected by Lexicon from among those discovered and analyzed in its Genome5000™ program.

In this program, Lexicon is using its gene knockout technology to discover the physiological functions of 5,000 potential drug targets.

Compounds contained in Cetek's library that show activity against selected targets may be licensed by Lexicon for drug discovery and development.