Biofrontera acquires all assets of bioLeads

German company Biofrontera Pharmaceuticals has taken over the entire operations of bioLeads, a natural compound company based in Heidelberg.

The acquisition offers Biofrontera access to a unique lead discovery and optimisation platform, comprising 45,000 micro-organisms, more than 2m compounds in prepurified fractions, and a synthetic chemistry unit. This resource will be combined with Biofrontera's strength in biology and pharmacology to identify and develop new drug candidates, mostly for the treatment of CNS diseases.

BioLeads employs cutting-edge microbiology, screening technology, and natural compound chemistry for the detection and identification of novel, active compounds with great structural diversity. Prior to the acquisition, Biofrontera and bioLeads collaborated successfully on the discovery of lead molecules for inflammatory pain. The combined strengths of the two companies will contribute substantially to the commercialisation of the technologies as a one-stop-shop solution for the pharmaceutical industry. They already have several ongoing drug discovery collaborations with leading international pharmaceutical companies.

'Biofrontera and bioLeads complement each other with their respective skill sets,' said Professor Luebbert, ceo of Biofrontera. 'The integration of bioLeads' abilities in chemistry will enable us to perform the pharmaceutical discovery process throughout all stages, and bring drugs into early development, both for in-house programmes and our pharmaceutical partners.'