Amphora Discovery has entered into a two-year research agreement focused on chemical biology and lead generation across Aventis global research sites.
Under the scope of the agreement, Amphora will employ its proprietary drug discovery capabilities to identify small molecule kinase inhibitors for multiple potential therapeutic targets. In addition, the deal calls for various other areas of collaboration including high content profiling, ion channel research and technology enhancement.
Amphora will be providing its activity data on libraries for use in discovery efforts by one of the Aventis Chemical Biology teams. Chemical Biology is an approach to drug discovery employed by Aventis that focuses on multiple facets of discovery research across families of targets.
Both companies say they expect to benefit from the collaboration’s development of improved focused libraries for increased probabilities of success in kinase lead generation. The ion channel research program will focus on one Aventis CNS therapeutic target.
Aventis has agreed to pay Amphora research funding, milestones and royalties on future products, and also has the option to extend the collaboration. The total value of the deal could be substantial if all milestones are achieved, the companies said, but declined to provide detailed financial terms.
Amphora: www.amphoracorp.com
