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ChemDiv, Inc. and ProQinase GmbH to Partner in Lead Discovery and Preclinical Development in Oncology

08 Nov 2005 - ChemDiv, Inc. and ProQinase GmbH Germany, announced that they have signed an agreement to establish a partnership in the discovery and preclinical development of new kinase inhibitors.
 
Under the agreement ChemDiv will support design and synthesis of target-focused small molecule libraries, undertake medicinal chemistry for hit to lead and lead optimization, as well as DMPK and certain in vivo experiments. ProQinase will be responsible for in vitro kinase inhibitor screening and profiling on a panel of jointly selected oncology-relevant kinase targets, cellular assays and in vivo experiments. Both parties will share development costs and revenues from the planned out-licensing of optimized leads.
 
"Many protein kinases, when deregulated, are linked causally to the formation of human tumors. Inhibitors of protein kinases, such as Gleevec, IRESSA and Tarceva, are recently approved anti-cancer drugs. The development of protein kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer is still at its beginning stage. Due to the diversity of molecular alterations found in human cancers, the lack of efficient and safe drugs for treating different types of cancers is substantial", states Dr. Michael Kubbutat, Head of Research & Development at ProQinase. "ProQinase has experience in the development of compounds that simultaneously block different mechanisms involved in tumor growth."