NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Horizon Discovery today announced that its CombinatoRx division has entered into a contract with Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development and Commercialization to perform in vitro cell line screening of certain OPDC candidates in development.
Horizon CombinatoRx will receive $835,000 for the work, which is to be substantially completed by the end of the year.
Horizon acquired CombinatoRx from Zalicus in June for about $8 million. CombinatoRx's Combination High-Throughput Screening platform and Chalice analytics software enables the screening and analysis of thousands of complementary drug combinations. Combined with Horizon's Genesis gene editing platform and X-MAN isogenic cell line technology, the company provides services that include new phenotypic cell-based screens with compound siRNA, shRNA, and sgRNA libraries.
"As combination therapies emerge as the standard of care in a range of indications, it is important that we identify effective multi-target mechanisms," Edwin Rock, senior director of global clinical development for OPDC, said in a statement. "Using the Horizon CombinatoRx platform to explore our clinical stage programs in the context of combinations may provide us with information to guide development."