NEW YORK, Jan. 23 - Drug-discovery company Syrrx is set to announce a collaboration with Pharmacia to determine the 3-D structure of proteins that may provide future drug targets.
The two firms will focus on drugs to treat cancer, inflammation, infectious disease, among other disorders. Under the agreement, Pharmacia will pay a technology access fee, R&D funding, and success payments. The pharmaceutical company may also take an equity stake in Syrrx.
Financial details of the agreement, which will be announced on Thursday, were not revealed.
Pharmacia also plans to deploy Syrrx's technology platform internally, where it is expected to improve and streamline the effort to ascertain protein structures. Syrrx's technologies are designed to speed the labor-intensive process of x-ray crystallography.
According to Syrrx CEO Wendell Wierenga, the effort is the first large-scale, multi-family structural proteomics effort adopted by a major pharmaceutical company.