Entomed enters antiviral drug discovery collaboration

French drug discovery company Entomed has entered into a collaboration with US-based Achillion Pharmaceuticals to discover and develop novel antiviral drugs.

The partnership will focus on the discovery of new lead compounds for the treatment of a number of serious viral diseases. Any new drugs discovered as a result of the collaboration will be developed jointly.

Under the agreement, Achillion will use its antiviral drug discovery expertise to screen Entomed's library, the Entomotheque, a focused collection of insect-derived molecules and analogues developed by Entomed. Achillion's drug discovery expertise includes state of the art medicinal chemistry and proprietary cell-based and molecular assays.

'Entomed's library houses a novel source of chemical diversity from insects, offering great potential to identify new drug candidates to treat viral diseases,' said Dr William G. Rice, ceo of Achillion. 'From this collaboration we expect to add new drug candidates to our growing pipeline of drugs that combat drug resistance, the major issue in infectious disease treatment today.'

Entomed's core technologies are built on the un-derstanding and exploitation of the battery of molecules synthesised by the powerful defence and cellular control systems that insects have. These molecules comprise both peptides and small molecules.