NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Lexicon Pharmaceuticals said today it will use Nuevolution’s technology to identify small molecule lead compounds against a range of highly validated drug targets.
Under the agreement, Lexicon will pay Nuevolution an upfront payment and would also pay milestone payments and royalties on compounds that are identified using the Nuevolution Chemetics technology if candidate molecules advance through preclinical and clinical development and onto the market.
Copenhagen, Denmark-based Nuevolution also will have a future option to expand its involvement through a cost and profit sharing arrangement.
Lexicon specifically will use Nuevolution’s Chemetics platform to screen multiple fragment-based small molecule libraries. The validated targets were identified using Lexicon’s Genome5000 program, which the company used to explore physiological and behavioral function for nearly 5,000 genes by studying corresponding genes in knockout mice.
Nuevolution uses DNA labeling as part of its Chematics fragment-based drug screening platform, which helps identifty potent drug leads of higher quality and more quickly than other high-throughout screening approaches, according to the company.