Schering and Astex announce drug discovery alliance

Schering, of Germany, has entered into a major multi-target drug discovery alliance with UK-based Astex Technology, the fragment-based drug discovery company. The four-year agreement relates to the discovery of novel drugs for various therapeutic indications, especially focusing on orally available small molecule drugs targeting solid tumours.

Under the terms of the agreement Schering will fund Astex's research programmes relating to the collaboration, providing discovery and clinical milestone payments plus royalties based on the sales of each product which reaches market approval.

Schering will be responsible for clinical development and has an option to retain worldwide exclusive marketing rights for all identified compounds. Multiple targets will be selected each year with an option to extend the collaboration for a further four-year term to include additional targets.

'We expect this collaboration to help us in identifying and optimising lead compounds for targets in various therapeutic fields, especially in the field of solid tumours,' said Professor Dr Rainer Metternich, head of Schering's Research Centre Europe. 'Access to this innovative lead discovery method gives Schering an additional option to accelerate the drug discovery process in selected research projects.'

Astex will apply its Pyramid fragment-based drug discovery approach to rapidly identify novel drug candidates against protein targets provided by Schering. The protein crystal structure is used to discover novel drug fragments, which are then optimised into potent lead compounds.

'This collaboration provides further validation of Astex's significant capabilities in fragment-based drug discovery, and underscores the potential of our Pyramid fragment-based approach for developing novel lead compounds against important disease-related targets,' said Timothy Haines, ceo of Astex.