Fisher Scientific buys Australian chemistry company

US biotechnology company MitoKor has sold its Australian subsidiary Mimitopes to Fisher Scientific International for an undisclosed sum.

The move will help to fund MitoKor's strategy of concentrating its resources on accelerating the preclinical and clinical development of its lead compounds.

Mitochondrial dysfunction is believed to be a significant contributing factor in major diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, osteoarthritis, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. MitoKor has established core competencies in drug discovery, as well as in bioenergetics and mitochondrial genomics and proteomics. It has two drug candidates in clinical development and a range of preclinical candidates that have demonstrated therapeutic efficacy in a number of disease models.

'MitoKor is advancing its drug development programmes as it continues to demonstrate proof of concept of the mitochondrion as a valuable target for multiple therapeutic areas,' said Dr Walter H. Moos, chairman and ceo. 'Under the terms of the sale, we will continue to access Mimotopes' chemistry capabilities, which have already made substantial contributions to our drug discovery programmes.'

Joining Fisher Scientific will boost Mimotipes' market presence and give it access to global markets