(2005-02-03) Cengent Therapeutics Signs Crystal Structure Determination Contract with Pierre Fabre.
Cengent Therapeutics Signs Crystal Structure Determination Contract with Pierre Fabre.
San Diego, CA (USA), Boulogne (France) ? January 24, 2005 ? Cengent Therapeutics, a structure-guided drug discovery company, has established a collaboration agreement with the Research Institute of Pierre Fabre, the second largest French pharmaceutical company to access to Cengent?s X-ray crystallography services to advance the company?s internal drug discovery efforts.
In this collaboration, Cengent will provide Pierre Fabre Research Institute with X-ray crystallography services, enabling researchers to view high-resolution structures of a human target in Oncology. Information obtained from X-ray crystallography structure of the target assist Pierre Fabre Research Institute in further structure-based lead design and optimization, enhancing the company?s ability to develop drug candidates.
?Cengent has demonstrated that its proprietary crystallography technology accelerates drug discovery and we are excited about this collaboration with Pierre Fabre to advance their programs,? stated Dr. Gordon Foulkes, President of Cengent Therapeutics.
?Cengent crystallography has been extremely prolific and we have solved about a dozen structures in the last year and we are able to extend our capabilities in this area to other companies to aid them in structure-guided drug discovery? commented Dr. Kal Ramnarayan, Chief Scientific Officer of Cengent Therapeutics.
?This agreement underlines once again our strategy of research and partnerships ; it demonstrates our commitment to collaborate with biotech companies, in order to gain access to key expertise and leading edge technologies for drug discovery. We increase therefore our chances to find original new products for diseases with high unmet medical needs such as Cancer?, declared Dr Jacques Kusmierek, President of the Pierre Fabre Research Institute and R&D Director of the Pierre Fabre Group.
About Us: About Cengent Therapeutics
Cengent Therapeutics is a structure-based drug discovery company with an in-house pre-clinical program in obesity/diabetes. The company also provides a comprehensive suite of structural services and capabilities for accelerating and optimizing the drug discovery process for its pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners. The company's service and product offerings include: Genes To Leads? to accelerate lead discovery and target validation; Structure Determination Services including X-ray crystallography and augmented homology modeling; and StructureBank?, a database for the large-scale comparative analysis of protein targets and anti-targets. The Genes To Leads? technology has been successfully applied to 15 targets on a contract basis for a growing number of pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and is the basis for Cengent?s own in-house programs which has lead to the discovery of orally active PTP-1B inhibitors for treatment of type II diabetes and obesity.
The company is also seeking a major partnership for its PTP-1B program. For additional information, please visit our website at www.cengent.com.
About Pierre Fabre:
The Pierre Fabre Group ( http://www.pierre-fabre.com ) the second-largest independent laboratory in France, employs some 9,000 people, and achieved 1.43 billion euros in sales in 2003. Operating in the areas of ethical medicine and health products (Pierre Fabre Medicament division) and dermo-cosmetics (Pierre Fabre Dermo-Cosmetique division, it achieves 44 percent of its business abroad.
With over 1,000 researchers belonging to the Pierre Fabre Research Institute, Pierre Fabre Medicament dedicates 23 percent of its annual sales to R&D, in five major therapeutic areas in terms of public health: oncology (the priority R&D area of Pierre Fabre Medicament, with 50 % of all R & D expenses), central nervous system, cardiology, internal medicine/urology and dermatology.
Contact Info: Contacts:
Cengent Therapeutics Inc.
Brian Baker, CFO
Ph: 858 675 2400 ext. 146
bbaker@cengent.com
Pierre Fabre
Alexandrine Urbain,
Communication Manager
Ph: +33.1.49.10.81.71
alexandrine.urbain@pierre-fabre.com
Additional:
Company: Cengent Therapeutics
Country: United States
Contact: Bradlee Swanson
Website: www.cengent.com
Bus E-Mail:
Phone: 858-675-2400
