Pharmabiz
 

AMRI enters drug discovery pact with CHDI

Albany, New YorkTuesday, May 5, 2009, 08:00 Hrs  [IST]

AMRI and CHDI Foundation Inc, a non-profit organisation pursuing drugs that delay or slow Huntington's disease (HD), entered into a new collaboration agreement focused on the discovery of new therapeutic agents for the treatment of Huntington's disease. Under this agreement, AMRI will test samples from its compound collection against several JNK kinases. These kinases may be implicated in the progression of HD. AMRI will use its expertise in computer-aided drug discovery (CADD), biological assay development and high throughput screening for this project. "AMRI is pleased to have this opportunity to partner with CHDI in its efforts to mitigate the effects of Huntington's disease. We look forward to leveraging our expertise in a broad spectrum of drug discovery services to develop potential treatments for this debilitating condition," said Bruce Sargent, vice president, discovery research & development at AMRI. "Based on the potential success of this first phase, AMRI has the ability to provide lead optimization services including medicinal chemistry and in vitro metabolism, making for a fully integrated drug discovery project in terms of time, quality and efficient use of resources." "Collaborating strategically with companies like AMRI helps us manage our scientific activities more efficiently," said Ignacio Muñoz-Sanjuan, vice president of biology at CHDI. "Access to AMRI's compound library and lead optimization services may allow us to move confidently from biological research into translational and pre-clinical programmes." CHDI is a non-profit organization with a mission to rapidly discover and develop drugs that delay or slow Huntington's disease. Founded in 1991, AMRI provides scientific services, products and technologies focused on improving the quality of life.

 
[Close]