MEDFORD, Mass.--ArQule here and Genome Therapeutics of Waltham, Mass., announced they will collaborate to discover novel drugs to combat bacterial and fungal diseases. ArQule will screen its proprietary chemical libraries against Genome Therapeutics' bacterial and fungal disease targets to identify and optimize small molecule antiinfectives.
Under terms of the agreement, ArQule will use validated bacterial and fungal targets from Genome Therapeutics' proprietary PathoGenome database to identify compounds with biological activity from ArQule's mapping array program. Once active leads are identified, the collaborators intend to use ArQule's directed array program to rapidly optimize lead compounds. ArQule and Genome Therapeutics will share ownership rights to any active lead compounds and will share any revenues upon commercialization of those compounds.
"We are collaborating with ArQule so that we can generate high-quality IND candidates as quickly as possible," said Robert Hennessey, Genome Therapeutics CEO. "ArQule's diverse pure compound libraries and advanced screening capabilities will help us to identify promising new drugs to fight bacterial and fungal infections. Opportunities for new anti-infectives are large and growing, spurred by the increasing problem of microbial resistance to existing classes of drugs."
ArQule CEO Eric Gordon said, "By applying ArQule's chemistry capability, Genome Therapeutics has a tremendous opportunity to speed its discovery programs, and ArQule has an opportunity to participate in the discovery and development of a portfolio of new products."