Biopharm ink New Year service deals in drive to enter clinic

05-Jan-2012 - Last updated on 05-Jan-2012 at 09:58 GMT

Biopharm companies have inked a raft of contract service deals at the start of 2012 in efforts to push compounds into the clinic.

DFH Pharma is to advance its HIV maturation inhibitor drugs through a deal with CiVentiChem. The speciality pharmaceutical company is outsourcing medicinal chemistry work to CiVentiChem to accelerate characterisation of small molecule drug candidates.

“The collaboration will allow DFH access to world-class medicinal chemists and help the company to achieve its primary goal of returning this exciting class of HIV drug to the clinic”, David Martin, chief development officer at DFH, said.

Kedam Pharmaceuticals has inked a deal with Corealis Pharma for production of Phase I supplies of its sublingual formulation of propranolol. Formulation development of KDM-1102, a sublingually delivered beta blocker, is complete and Kedam is ready to up production ahead of entering the clinic.

“We are pleased with the progress we have been making in our development program on KDM-1102, our Second lead therapeutic drug for cardiovascular and anxiety attacks”, Hassan Salari, CEO of Kedem Pharmaceuticals, said.

Russian biotech OncoMax is working with Goodwin Biotechnology, Inc (GBI) on development of its monoclonal antibody (mAb) for treating renal cell carcinoma. GBI is providing cell line engineering and manufacturing of the mAb expressed in a mammalian cell line.

“It truly represents ‘one-stop-shopping’ for our clients”, Muctarr Sesay, vice president of process development at GBI, said. In collaboration with Rafagen, one of its partners, GBI will develop a high-producing clone, create a research cell bank and begin manufacturing of the antibody.

Ipsen is collaborating with Oncodesign to develop LRRK2 kinase inhibitors for treating Parkinson's disease. France-based Oncodesign will use its medicinal chemistry technology to access promising small molecule kinase inhibitors for Ipsen.

“Our collaboration with Oncodesign is the expression of our recently announced strategy to extend our research and development through expert external partners for compounds outside our chosen areas of focus, peptides and toxins”, Claude Bertrand, chief scientific officer at Ipsen, said.