Aureus Pharma, a provider of knowledge management solutions to aid discovery in the life sciences industry, has provided Euroscreen, SA its AurSCOPE GPCR knowledge database. Euroscreen joins a growing list of companies using Aureus Pharma's technology, including sanofi-aventis, Roche, and Servier. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

AurSCOPE GPCR provides researchers rapid access to quantitative biological activity data mined from the scientific journals and patents for all known GPCR's, a major class of membrane proteins. As GPCR's are the target for nearly 50% of all drugs today, this wealth of knowledge is crucial to new drug discovery, according to a company release.

Euroscreen will use Aureus Pharma's technology in conjunction with their in-house technology to identify new GPCR drug candidates. "By integrating the Aureus GPCR knowledge database with Euroscreen's research platform, our scientists will be able to rapidly prioritize candidates in lead generation and optimization programs," said Dr. Francois Roman, Vice President R & D for Euroscreen. "The information contained within the database will also help us in the design of our chemical libraries for our screening campaigns" said Dr. Frederic Ooms, Head of Chemistry for Euroscreen,” he added.