Locus, a computationally-based drug design and development company, has entered into the agreement with Lilly, however specific details of the collaboration were not disclosed.
Protein kinases function as control switches for many biochemical pathways inside cells. Kinase activities can become dysregulated by numerous molecular and signaling events, thus contributing to both the onset and progression of diseases.
These proteins are of particular interest as targets for the development of novel therapeutics, but because there are more than 500 structurally related kinases, a drug often requires high selectivity for the intended target, a design capability where Locus has demonstrated expertise.
“Having successfully applied our computational approach to internal kinase programs which have reached the IND lead stage, we are confident that our proprietary algorithms will allow us to design novel chemical classes of kinase inhibitors with predictably high potency and selectivity for Lilly,” said Dr Jeffrey Wiseman, vice president of technology & informatics at Locus.