The collaboration is a reflection of the next level in oncology research with a focus on small molecule treatments that produce targeted therapeutics to diseased cells that produce fewer side effects and leave healthy cells untouched.
Under the terms of the agreement, US-based Avalon will use its AvalonRx platform to discover new active compounds in screens against selected targets and target pathways.
Meanwhile ChemDiv will provide Avalon access to its proprietary platform, including the world's largest commercially available chemical library, as well as medicinal and synthetic chemistry for the discovery and development of new active compounds.
Financial terms state that Avalon and ChemDiv will share in the costs of development and the value of any lead candidate resulting from their joint research efforts.
Avalon has made significant headway in cancer therapeutics with a number of drug candidates in the Beta-catenin Pathway Inhibitor, and Aurora Kinase Inhibitor classes.
Its decision to work with ChemDiv, a global chemistry-driven contract research organisation, allows the use of the Discovery outSource platform, a full service drug discovery offering synthetic chemistry; medicinal chemistry, diverse & focused screening libraries, global logistics and; pre-clinical development.
"This collaboration is based on the synergy of ChemDiv's discovery assets and research resources along with Avalon's unique drug discovery engine," said Nikolay Savchuk, President and CEO of ChemDiv.
"We believe that this combination of both Avalon's and ChemDiv's technologies will result in a reduction of the time and effort required to identify and develop new breakthrough therapeutics."
ChemDiv has become a popular choice as an outsourcing partner, thanks primarily to its Discovery outSource platform. The company are one of a handful that also performs high throughput screening (HTS) with a throughput of millions of data points per year.
It is also one of only a couple in the world that conducts HTS campaigns running assays in parallel.
Last month, the company extended its R&D collaboration with Nerviano Medical Sciences for 2 years. This agreement was to capitalise on ChemDiv's success in contributing its world largest small molecule collection and library designs set to NervianoMS discovery chemistry assets.
"This is a classic win-win situation for both companies," said Kenneth Carter, President and CEO of Avalon Pharmaceuticals.
"We are pleased to partner with ChemDiv, where we are both able to leverage expertise in the ongoing effort to discover new cancer therapeutics through the combination of our AvalonRx drug discovery platform and ChemDiv's compound library, chemistry resources and expertise," he added.