Argenta Discovery and Almac Discovery Announce Contract Drug Discovery Collaboration in Cancer

Argenta Discovery Ltd. and Almac Discovery Ltd. have announced that they have entered into an important fee-for-service collaboration. Under the terms of the agreement, scientists from the two companies will work together to advance one of Almac’s portfolio of high-value cancer programmes from hit identification to development candidate. Argenta will provide computational chemistry and medicinal chemistry services and know-how, and Almac will contribute medicinal chemistry, biochemistry and in vitro screening capabilities and expertise. Commenting on the agreement, Dr. Timothy Harrison, Vice-President, Discovery Chemistry at Almac Discovery said, "We are looking forward to working with Argenta on this drug discovery programme which forms a significant component of our effort to develop novel therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. Argenta is well-known and respected within the pharmaceutical industry for its high-quality medicinal chemistry-driven services, and was therefore a natural choice as a partner to support our discovery activities. Cancer remains the second highest cause of death in developed countries, accounting for 7.6 million (or 13%) of all mortalities annually world-wide, and this figure is forecast to increase to 9 million deaths by 2015. For this reason, it has become increasingly important to discover and develop novel and effective cancer treatments.” Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the agreement provides options to expand the relationship.