Technology Overview
Astex's leading position in fragment-based drug discovery derives from its integrated discovery engine, Pyramid™. Pyramid™ is an integrated new approach to drug discovery that rapidly delivers tailored high-quality small molecule drug leads with enhanced therapeutic potential. Pyramid™ defines a process by which a range of high throughput biophysical and computational techniques are used to experimentally characterize the interactions of very low molecular weight synthetic ligands with their target proteins. The productivity of Pyramid™ has allowed the company to generate a robust pipeline of novel “best in class” drug candidates which the company is advancing independently and through valuable strategic partnerships with industry leaders such as Novartis and AstraZeneca. In addition, our ability to address targets that have been regarded as “intractable” by the pharmaceutical industry has led to separate drug discovery collaborations with AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis and Schering AG. Going forward, the company expects Pyramid™ to continue to deliver at least one IND per year.
By careful monitoring of key characteristics such as ligand efficiency and in vivo activity during lead optimization, Astex's fragment based drug discovery approach ensures delivery of potent, selective and low molecular weight compounds with optimised drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic properties, thus reducing attrition during drug development. Pyramid™ has been successfully applied by Astex across a wide variety of therapeutic targets, including those regarded as 'intractable' by the pharmaceutical industry, resulting in lead compounds for the potential treatment of cancer, inflammation and Alzheimer's disease.