WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Small molecule drug discovery specialist X-Chem, Inc. today announced that AbbVie has exercised options to license two discovery programs. Under the terms of the parties’ 2016 multi-target research collaboration, AbbVie had an option to an exclusive license to the programs, each of which comprises multiple novel, cell-active modulators of two historically challenging targets in oncology and immunology.
“Our goal in this collaboration was to leverage the target expertise of AbbVie and the power of X-Chem’s libraries and DEX platform,” said Rick Wagner, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of X-Chem. “The results demonstrate that even the most challenging targets can be tackled with small molecule approaches when the right expertise comes together.”
About X-Chem’s DNA-Encoded (DEX™) Libraries and Platform
X-Chem’s
DEX drug discovery engine is based on a collection of DNA-encoded
libraries comprising over 120 billion unique small molecules derived
from iterative combinatorial chemistry processes, where the identity of
each compound is recorded in a linked DNA barcode. The pooled libraries
are used in low volume, affinity-based screening against biological
targets, whereby ligands are ‘fished out’ and identified via DNA
sequencing. Innovations in library design, screening methodologies, and
bioinformatics underlie the exceptional performance of the DEX platform.
The use of previously inaccessible chemical reactions and atom-efficient
synthesis schemes generate maximal diversity and rule-of-five
compliance. Parallel screens, either varying target concentration or
including off-targets, mutants or known ligand competitors, allow for
insight into the potency, mechanism of action, and specificity of
putative hits. Proprietary statistical and bioinformatics tools identify
multiple clusters of related molecules with emergent structure-activity
relationships. These innovations underpin X-Chem’s success against
difficult and intractable targets that have failed in conventional
screening, and have generated over 100 fragment, low molecular weight
heterocycle, macrocycle, and irreversible covalent electrophilic lead
series that have been licensed by X-Chem’s partners.
About X-Chem
X-Chem, Inc. is a privately owned biotechnology
company based in Waltham, Massachusetts. The company’s mission is to
apply its powerful product engine to the discovery of small molecule
leads against high-value therapeutic targets. X-Chem has established
partnerships with AbbVie, Alexion, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Gilead,
Janssen, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Ono, Otsuka, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi,
Taiho, Vertex, and several other leading pharmaceutical companies,
biotechnology organizations, and academic centers. For further
information on X-Chem, please visit: http://www.x-chemrx.com/.
