Evotec OAI and Rib-X Pharmaceuticals in medicinal chemistry collaboration

Evotec OAI has entered into an agreement to form a medicinal chemistry partnership with US-based Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company focused on the design and development of the next generation of antibiotics to fight multidrug-resistant bacteria.

Scientists from Rib-X and Evotec OAI will collaborate on several research programmes. Evotec OAI will be utilising its integrated medicinal chemistry and parallel synthesis platform to facilitate Rib-X's efforts to identify novel antibiotics for clinical development.

Rib-X Pharmaceuticals' drug discovery strategy is focused on the exploitation of its proprietary high-resolution crystal structure of the 50S subunit of the ribosome, which performs an essential role in the fundamental process of protein synthesis, and to which many known antibiotics bind.

The company's integrated research approach combines proprietary computational analysis, x-ray crystallography, medicinal chemistry, microbiology and biochemistry, allowing for the rapid synthesis of new agents, which avoid typical antibiotic resistance mechanisms. Utilizing these tools, Rib-X has what amounts to a map of the 50S subunit of the ribosome and is using this in the optimisation of leads and the creation of new classes of antibiotics.

'The founders and scientists at Rib-X have made tremendous progress in securing the competitive position of their anti-infective drug discovery technology,' said Joern Aldag, president and ceo of Evotec OAI. 'We are delighted that they have chosen Evotec OAI to support them in their efforts to address the growing problem of resistance to commonly used antibiotics.'