The purpose of the collaboration between Pharmasset and Genome Research Institute (GRI) is to identify active and selective compounds against antiviral targets for hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
According to the terms of the agreement, the University of Cincinnati (UC) has granted Pharmasset access to the GRI lead generation library, which includes over 250,000 compounds. Pharmasset will also gain access to GRI’s drug discovery capabilities, including high-throughput screening, computational chemistry and in-silico docking expertise, which are led by Ruben Papoian.
The university has granted Pharmasset commercial rights for any lead compounds that are identified for HBV, HIV and HCV. Pharmasset will make an annual payment to UC in support of the research collaboration and shall be responsible for all development expenses of products that may result from the collaboration.
If a lead compound progresses through clinical development activities and achieves regulatory approval, Pharmasset will make certain milestone payments and pay a royalty on any net sales of the product.