Sareum Holdings PLC
22 January 2007
For immediate release 22 January 2007
SAREUM HOLDINGS PLC
("Sareum" or the "Company")
Sareum to Collaborate With Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research &
Development, Division of Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V.
Sareum Holdings plc (AIM: SAR), the specialist structure-based drug discovery
business, announced today that it has entered into an initial 12-month
collaborative agreement with Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and
Development (J&JPRD), a Division of Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V.
Under the terms of the agreement, Sareum will apply its skills in high
throughput protein structure determination to assist J&JPRD scientists in
developing new and improved therapeutics to help patients suffering from
diseases of the central nervous system. In return, Sareum will receive
technology access fees and success-dependent milestone payments. Financial
terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Commenting on the agreement, Sareum's Chief Executive Officer, Dr Tim Mitchell,
said: "We are very excited to collaborate with J&JPRD and look forward to using
our technology and expertise in this area to find new therapies for patients."
For further information:
Sareum Contacts:
Sareum Holdings 01223 497700
Tim Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer
Buchanan Communications 020 7466 5000
Tim Anderson, Mary-Jane Johnson, Simon Potter
Notes for editors:
About Sareum Holdings plc
Sareum Holdings plc is a structure-based drug discovery business headquartered
in Cambridge, UK. The Company was formed in August 2003 to discover new drugs
for the treatment of cancer. Sareum's unique approach aims to halve the time it
takes to discover new drug candidates.
A structure-based approach to drug discovery relies on knowledge of the
three-dimensional structure of the proteins that cause disease. Once the
structure is known, potential drugs are designed to 'lock-in' to the protein
with the aim of reversing or arresting a disease's progression. Knowledge of
the structure of the potential drugs and how they 'lock-in' to their target
protein assists greatly in the development of high-quality drug candidates.
Determining structure is a complex task and requires leading-edge equipment and
experienced staff. Sareum's approach to structure determination utilises its
proprietary protein expression platform in order to produce multiple recombinant
proteins that accelerate structure determination using x-ray crystallography.
Once the structure is determined, the Company's innovative fragment screening
platform is used to identify novel chemical templates designed to interact with
the target protein. Sareum then uses its high-throughput medicinal chemistry
platform to rapidly optimise these molecules and develop the most promising into
potential drug candidates.
Sareum aims to successfully deliver drug candidates for licensing to larger
pharmaceutical companies at the pre-clinical or early clinical trials stage.
This is funded by provision of its specialist drug discovery capabilities to
partners in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Sareum joined the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in October 2004 and
trades under the symbol SAR. For further information, please visit
www.sareum.co.uk
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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