Adherex Technologies Inc., a biopharmaceutical company with a broad portfolio of oncology products under development, and Scynexis, Inc., a medicinal chemistry-focused drug discovery and development company, have signed an agreement under which Scynexis will provide comprehensive medicinal and analytical chemistry services to Adherex with the goal of accelerating and expanding Adherex's small molecule cadherin antagonist development programmes.

The agreement provides Adherex with dedicated chemistry resources at Scynexis, including a highly experienced medicinal chemistry team backed by innovative technologies. All proprietary information and data developed pursuant to the agreement will be owned solely by Adherex.

Dr. Brian Huber, Adherex's CSO, explained, "Adherex's lead biotechnology compound, ADH-1, is progressing well through its development and is entering Phase II clinical trials. ADH-1 is a cyclic peptide that has been well tolerated and has shown encouraging anti-tumor activity in our Phase I programme. It is administered by intravenous injection, which is appropriate for an anti-tumour and vascular targeting agent used in cancer patients. However, there are other potential uses for cadherin antagonist drugs that would be better served by an orally active drug. To enhance our capabilities for oral drug delivery, we are working with Scynexis to expand our small molecule discovery efforts."

"Scynexis is pleased to work with Adherex's outstanding team in its novel drug discovery and development efforts," Yves Ribeill, president and CEO of Scynexis said adding, "Our scientists look forward to working with their Adherex counterparts to accelerate the optimization of proprietary molecules for their oncology and non-oncology programmes."

Small molecules are low molecular weight, non-peptide molecules that can be optimized to be orally active, more potent and stable with a longer half-life than related peptides.