Ensemble Discovery has announced the initiation of a strategic alliance with Pfizer, to discover and develop drug candidates of a novel class against a number of high-value pharmaceutical targets.
The collaboration will deploy Ensemble’s proprietary drug discovery platforms and Ensemblin compound libraries to discover and advance drug candidates. Pfizer will provide upfront and research payments to Ensemble and will have the right to develop and commercialize any products arising from the collaboration. In addition, Ensemble will receive development milestones plus royalties based on worldwide sales of any drugs emerging from the alliance and commercialized by Pfizer.
The goal of the alliance is to develop Ensemblins against important therapeutic targets, particularly those involving protein-protein interactions. Ensemblins are a new class of oral drugs developed by Ensemble to address disease targets that cannot be modulated effectively by traditional small molecule pharmaceuticals.
Michael Taylor, CEO of Ensemble Discovery, said: “We are excited to launch our new alliance with Pfizer. This is our second major alliance in less than a year and it attributes a significantly increased value to our platform and its resultant products. This deal supports Ensemble’s position as the leading company exploring new therapeutic opportunities between small molecules and biologics.”
Tony Wood, global head of chemistry at Pfizer, said: “Pfizer is very pleased to join this collaboration. The Ensemble technology platform will give us access to an area of chemical space not currently well-represented in our file that holds the potential to be of utility in addressing novel target types.”
Nick Terrett, CSO of Ensemble Discovery, said: “Our Ensemblin platform advanced massively during 2009 and our capabilities will increase further in 2010. There is a growing recognition in the large pharma companies of the need for novel chemistry capability to attack the many targets with strong biological validation that do not lend themselves to conventional small molecule or biologic drugs. Our progress has demonstrated the power of the Ensemblins to address those targets, as our leading projects have advanced to demonstrate oral efficacy in preclinical disease models.”