Drug Discovery Alliances
Astex's unprecedented productivity in lead discovery and structure based DMPK has been endorsed by drug discovery alliances with many of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies and research institutions
Astex and Novartis have a strategic licensing and drug discovery alliance focussed on the research, development and commercialisation of novel cell cycle control drugs for the treatment of cancer and other human diseases. The agreement grants Novartis a worldwide license to Astex's novel oral cell cycle inhibitor AT9311 and an option for a global license to Astex's parenteral inhibitor AT7519.
Astex and AstraZeneca have a strategic alliance to discover, develop and commercialise novel small molecule inhibitors of the anti-cancer target Protein Kinase B (Akt).
Astex and AstraZeneca have an agreement relating to the discovery of novel drugs against a key protein target, beta-secretase implicated in the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
Astex and Boehringer Ingelheim have a multi-target drug discovery alliance. Astex will apply its proprietary fragment based discovery approach, Pyramid™, to generate novel lead series against targets selected by Boehringer Ingelheim. The three-year agreement relates to the discovery of novel drugs for various therapeutic indications.
Astex and The Institute of Cancer Research and Cancer Research Technology have an exclusive research collaboration and license agreement relating to the discovery of novel drugs against Protein Kinase B.
Astex has successfully completed drug discovery research collaborations with the Janssen Research Foundation, a division of Janssen Pharmaceutica, the wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation and Schering AG.
Astex has successfully completed work under a series of structural biology research agreements with AstraZeneca, Astellas Pharma, Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation and sanofi-aventis. This work was focused on solving novel cytochrome P450 crystal structures. These structures will be used to optimise the partner’s compounds and so improve the success rate of drug development, and the intellectual property generated now forms the core of Astex’s cytochrome P450 licensing programme.