PhoreMost and Plexxikon Collaborate to Identify Novel Drug Targets

PhoreMost, the UK-based biopharmaceutical company dedicated to drugging ‘undruggable’ disease targets, announced that it has signed a collaborative agreement with Plexxikon Inc., the small molecule structure-guided R&D centre of Daiichi Sankyo.

Under the agreement, PhoreMost will apply its next-generation phenotypic screening platform, SITESEEKER®, towards key cancer-driving cellular pathways. The alliance will draw upon expertise in signal transduction from Dr. Simon Cook at the Babraham Institute (Cambridge, UK). The goal of the collaboration will be to deliver novel drug targets that can serve as starting points for new drug discovery initiatives led by Plexxikon.

“We are delighted to have signed our agreement with PhoreMost. The SITESEEKER approach using small peptides to rapidly and systematically search for drug targets can provide significant value to Plexxikon’s structure-guided drug discovery programs,” said Dr. Gideon Bollag, CEO of Plexxikon.

Dr. Chris Torrance CEO of PhoreMost, said: “We are excited to bring our SITESEEKER technology to this collaboration with Plexxikon and the Cook lab, leading experts in cell signalling pathways. This is an ideal partnership to potentially transform biological insights into the next generation of innovative medicines.”

Dr. Simon Cook from the Babraham Institute, said: “I am thrilled to be working together with both PhoreMost and Plexxikon. This is a great example of partners with complementary skill-sets coming together to identify and validate elusive new drug targets.”