NEW YORK, June 20 - Oxford Glycosciences and NeoGenesis have agreed to partner in an effort to identify small molecule drugs for OGS' protein targets, the companies said Wednesday.
OGS, of Oxford, UK, will provide an undisclosed number of protein targets to NeoGenesis, and pay NeoGenesis research fees, milestone payments, and royalties for lead compounds that the company identifies. OGS will commercialize any lead compounds, and is also making an undisclosed equity investment in NeoGenesis.
To find these lead compounds, Cambridge, Mass.-based NeoGenesis will employ its technology for screening OGS' protein targets against its library of over 10 million lead compounds. This technology, called the Automated Ligand Identification System, can screen 300,000 lead compounds a day to identify the compounds that bind with the protein target, according to the company.
"OGS is identifying a large portfolio of disease associated proteins," Michael Kranda, CEO of OGS, said in a statement. "To capitalize on the potential that this represents, we've enlisted the large chemical libraries and high-speed screening technology of NeoGenesis, which is a great match for OGS' high-throughput proteomics platform."
OGS also collaborates with Medarex, a manufacturer of fully human antibodies, to develop antibodies as possible therapeutics using OGS' protein targets.
Last Friday, OGS announced that it was expanding into database services by collaborating with communications company Marconi to develop a database of proteins and their corresponding genomic sequence.