CAMBRIDGE, U.K., Dec. 12, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Astex Technology, the structure-based drug discovery company, today gives a review of the progress made in 2002 and comments on the outlook for the next twelve months.
Over the past year, Astex has made significant progress in its internal lead discovery programs utilising its fragment-based lead discovery technology, Pyramid(TM). Novel lead compounds against a range of kinases, in the cancer and inflammation therapeutic areas, have been identified using the Pyramid(TM) approach, and are now in pre-clinical lead optimisation. This exemplification of the Company's structure-based lead discovery technology resulted in its most recent corporate collaboration with Mitsubishi Pharma, based on identification of novel lead compounds against a key protein target in the area of metabolic disorders.
In October, Astex announced that it had solved the 3-dimensional crystal structure of human cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4), a long-standing scientific challenge. The first human cytochrome P450 structure, CYP2C9, was also solved by Astex in December 2001, however CYP3A4 is generally regarded as the most important family member of these drug metabolising enzymes as it affects 50% of all known drugs. The structures of human cytochrome P450 enzymes will enable the company to generate lead compounds with reduced metabolic liabilities, and also to pursue "drug-rescue" opportunities.
Astex's expertise and achievements in P450 structural biology have led to several collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies, validating the Company's technology. This year, Aventis Pharmaceuticals and Mitsubishi Pharma joined AstraZeneca in Astex's P450 Programme. The agreements involve solving the crystal structures of cytochrome P450s complexed to the companies' drug candidates, thereby providing greater potential for their clinical success. In addition, two milestone payments were announced, from AstraZeneca and Aventis Pharmaceuticals, for ongoing collaborations in this area.
Astex announced the issuance of its first patent, in early December, covering the structure of an antimicrobial drug target. Astex's intellectual property portfolio includes trademarks, software, significant know-how, and a patent estate that reflects the diverse but integrated collection of Astex technologies utilised in the drug discovery process. This includes new nucleic acid and amino acid sequences, crystal structures and methods for their production, computer-based analytical methods, as well as chemical compounds and their therapeutic use.
The significant growth of business during 2002 has led to an increase in employee numbers from 79 to 92 over the year, and several high-calibre appointments. These include the appointment of Peter Fellner, CEO Celltech, as non-executive Chairman of Astex, who will help take the Company forward to the next stage of growth. A further significant event reflecting Astex's continuing success is the move to a new, purpose built facility on the Cambridge Science Park, planned for early 2003. The company was also featured in TIME DIGITAL as a one of the Hottest 50 Tech companies, and in Tornado Insider's Top 100 list.
"We are delighted to have achieved so much this year; this is due to the calibre of the people working at Astex and the quality of the scientific output they have generated," commented Tim Haines, CEO of Astex. "We are looking forward to moving to the larger facility in order to continue the expansion of our discovery programmes and to advance more of our compounds into a pre-clinical stage of development. We are also looking to further progress our current collaborations, and establish new agreements with pharmaceutical partners. This future growth will place us in a strong position to prepare for an Initial Public Offering, when the financial window opens."
Astex Technology is a structure-based drug discovery company pioneering the use of high throughput X-ray crystallography for the rapid identification of novel drug candidates. The company's unique structural screening approach utilizes protein crystal structures to detect the binding of drug fragments, which are then optimized into potent lead compounds. Facilitating this approach is the company's integrated drug discovery platform of HTX(R) technologies, which covers all aspects of structure-based research, including protein production, crystallization, structure determination, bioinformatics and computational and medicinal chemistry.
Astex Technology is focusing its drug discovery approaches on proprietary and public domain protein targets from families and/or pathways. This includes validated kinases, phosphatases and proteases implicated in human disease. Astex has a drug discovery collaboration with Mitsubishi Pharma, has further research agreements with another large pharmaceutical company, and has structural biology research agreements with AstraZeneca AB, Aventis Pharmaceuticals and Mitsubishi Pharma focused on solving novel cytochrome P450 crystal structures.