Sareum Announces Collaboration with Lundbeck

Sareum Holdings plc has announced that it has entered into a collaborative agreement with H. Lundbeck A/S to provide protein structure determination capabilities to accelerate drug discovery research at Lundbeck.

Sareum will apply its skills in high throughput protein expression, purification and structure determination to explain the exact nature of the interaction of Lundbeck’s potential drug candidates with their target protein receptor.

This information is invaluable in helping Lundbeck’s scientists to develop new and improved therapeutics to help patients suffering from neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, one of Lundbeck’s key drug discovery focus areas.

In return, Sareum will receive research fees and success milestone payments, the majority of which are expected to be recognized in the financial year to June 2006.

This is the third announcement relating to the trading update issued by Sareum on 5th January 2006 where Sareum stated that it had entered into several collaborations in late December, one of which is with Lundbeck.

Commenting on the agreement, Sareum’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Tim Mitchell, said, "We are very pleased that Lundbeck has selected to work with Sareum as their partner in protein structure determination."

"This is a further important collaboration that Sareum has entered into with another top 50 international pharmaceutical company, and we look forward to successful delivery of this project to Lundbeck."

Commenting on the agreement, Lundbeck’s Vice President of Research, Dr. Peter Hongaard Andersen, said, "Structure based drug design is an important aspect in modern drug discovery strategies and we expect this collaboration with Sareum will enhance our Drug Discovery process."

"The partnership also further illustrates Lundbeck’s commitment to accelerating the discovery of novel therapies for patients suffering from neurological and psychiatric diseases."