UK firm Argenta Discovery has inked a contract with BioTie Therapies. Under the terms of the agreement, scientists from the two companies will exploit Argenta's expertise to advance one of BioTie's new therapeutics programmes towards development candidate nomination. "This is our first collaboration with BioTie and we believe their decision to work with Argenta is a tribute to the capabilities and the expertise of our contract drug discovery team in undertaking lead optimisation projects," said Christopher Ashton, Argenta's CEO. BioTie said it expects Argenta's expertise in medicinal chemistry, computer-aided drug design (CADD), and early absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) will help accelerate this 'first in class' late discovery programme into full preclinical development. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but the firms said the deal does provide options to expand the collaboration. In other news, SRI International and Blanca Pharmaceuticals recently announced they will co-develop and conduct final preclinical studies of Blanca's carbacephem antibiotic drug candidates, which are currently in late-stage preclinical development. SRI will serve as Blanca's incubator, providing laboratory services and facilities for many of Blanca's drug development need, the two companies said. Under the terms of the deal, the two Californian firms will study compounds BP-101 and BP-102, which have broad-spectrum bactericidal activity against the most problematic Gram-positive bacteria, such as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus and epidermidis (MRSA/E), penicillin-resistant streptococcus pneumoniae (PRSP) and vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE), as well as most Gram-negative bacteria. "Our parenteral and oral programs will benefit from SRI's superb record in drug development, their extensive capabilities as an R&D and CRO - and established relationships with the business community," said Jim Rurka, Blanca's chief business officer. Finally, Discovery Partners International (DPI), another California-based CRO, has been selected by US firm Chroma Therapeutics to collaborate on the discovery of potential new lead compounds against several selected targets. Chroma will provide the targets while DPI will use its compound collection, discovery processes and data management tools to identify potential lead compounds or potential lead series. Oxford-based Chroma is a cancer drug discovery and development company focused in the field of chromatin biology, which is dubbed as one of the most promising areas of cancer research. The company has a diversified pipeline of chromatin-based programmes which it claims have the potential to deliver a new class of targeted cancer agents, combining the efficacy of cytotoxics with the safety and tolerability of molecular-targeted agents. Chroma's lead development candidate, CHR-2797, entered Phase I clinical development in November 2004.
