28 October, 2015 – C4X Discovery Holdings plc (“C4XD”), a leader in rational drug discovery and design, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a research collaboration with the University of Oxford’s Structural Genomics Consortium department (“SGC-Oxford”).
SGC-Oxford is part of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine and consists of around 100 scientists who collaborate widely with major pharmaceutical companies and the worldwide academic network, including several other University Departments, such as the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, the Botnar Research Centre and the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS). These scientists combine world-class expertise in therapeutic target validation, protein expression, assay development and protein structural information.
Under the terms of the collaboration announced today, C4XD will be granted access to structural, biological and therapeutic information that SGC-Oxford holds in relation to various therapeutic targets and related assays, as well as initial ‘hit’ molecules that SGC-Oxford has identified against these targets. C4XD’s expertise in ligand design will be used to complement SGC-Oxford’s expertise in x-ray crystallography, screening and chemical biology in the identification of new and improved hit molecules against the SGC-Oxford targets.
Improvements made to SGC-Oxford’s existing hit molecules will be the exclusive property of SGC-Oxford, which will make them freely available in line with SGC-Oxford policy, while new compounds independently identified by C4XD will belong to C4XD. There are no cash payments due under the collaboration.
Clive Dix, Chairman of C4XD commented: “We are very excited to be working with such a prestigious organisation as SGC-Oxford. We believe that the comprehensive nature of SGC-Oxford’s insights into the structure, biology and chemistry will elegantly complement our own rational drug-design approach, providing a powerful new basis for C4XD to expand its pipeline into exciting new therapeutic areas.”
Professor Chas Bountra, Chief Scientist at SGC-Oxford and Professor of Translational Medicine at the University of Oxford, commented: “We are pleased to partner with C4XD and are excited about the potential of this alliance. C4XD has a highly innovative chemistry technology which complements our strong research base to accelerate product development.”
