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Bioseek licenses two anti-inflammatory peptides from Amylin Pharma
Burlingame, California | Saturday, November 15, 2008, 08:00 Hrs  [IST]

BioSeek, Inc, a pioneer in the application of predictive human biology to drug discovery, announced that it has exclusively licensed two novel anti-inflammatory peptides from Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The two novel peptides were identified as candidates for development by BioSeek as a result of an ongoing joint research collaboration initiated between the two companies in 2007. These two peptides will be the basis for proprietary optimization and development programs at BioSeek for potential indications outside of Amylin's core therapeutic focus.

Under the collaboration, BioSeek applied its BioMAP human biology screening systems to evaluate the potential of 500 peptides in Amylin's proprietary polypeptide hormone library, Phormol, to treat a range of inflammatory conditions. From that pool of 500 peptides, BioSeek was granted the right to select and license two of the peptides for its own preclinical portfolio. In exchange for milestone payments and royalties payable to Amylin, BioSeek has the right to optimize, develop and outlicense the two selected peptides. BioSeek is also eligible to receive royalties if Amylin develops or licenses an additional limited set of peptides for uses identified in the collaboration.

"Exercising this license for two promising peptides from Amylin significantly expands our internal pipeline of drug candidates and demonstrates the broad utility of our BioMAP platform of predictive human biology screens to enhance and accelerate drug discovery," said Michael C Venuti, chief executive officer of BioSeek. "By generating predictive preclinical human data on the pharmacological properties of Amylin's Phormol library, the BioMAP platform provided insight into the potential utility of the peptides across multiple therapeutic areas. We advanced this project rapidly to achieve the goal of identifying two promising anti-inflammatory peptides for BioSeek."

The selection of two of the most promising lead peptides was guided by identification of dose-responsive anti-inflammatory activity across a broad panel of BioMAP systems. BioSeek's immediate objective is to bring these two peptides forward quickly through preclinical studies for both sequence optimization and pharmaceutical property improvements, with the intention of nominating preclinical candidates for further efficacy, toxicology and safety assessment.

"This collaboration validates our model of generating value by combining our proprietary Phormol peptide library with a novel human predictive screening platform, such as BioMAP to search for new outcome-based activities," said Michael Hanley, vice president, discovery research and chief scientific officer at Amylin. "Our joint research collaboration annotated our proprietary peptide library for new therapeutic indications outside of Amylin's primary areas of development, while also identifying two potential preclinical candidates for development by BioSeek."

BioMAP Systems are primary cell-based models of human disease biology, designed to replicate the intricate cell and pathway interactions as they are observed in vascular inflammation, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, fibrosis and related clinical indications. Depending on their mechanism of action, compounds induce specific patterns of changes in these systems (BioMAP profiles) that can be compared to a large number of reference profiles in the BioMAP Database. Assessment with BioMAP provides early insight into human pharmacological properties of compounds, including on- and off-target effects, dose responses, and the discrimination of closely related compounds.

BioSeek is improving the success rate of pharmaceutical research and development by integrating human biology from the earliest stages of drug discovery onward.

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