Boehringer Ingelheim Prolongates Drug Discovery Collaboration with Priaxon
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Munich and Ingelheim, Germany, January 24, 2012 / B3C newswire / - Priaxon, utilizing its proprietory PriaXplore® platform for small molecule drug discovery, and Boehringer Ingelheim will prolongate their research and development collaboration on mdm2/p53 inhibitors for the treatment of cancer.
The companies will continue working jointly to identify and advance drug candidates into pre-clinical development. Thereafter, Boehringer Ingelheim will drive the development and commercialisation of the potential cancer treatments arising from the collaboration.
" Priaxon has been able to develop promising mdm2/p53 inhibitors with its PriaXplore® technology", said Dr Juergen Kolb, CEO of Priaxon. "We are proud that Boehringer Ingelheim appreciates Priaxon as a competent partner by prolongating the collaboration to advance the high potency lead compounds. We enjoy the fair and creative atmosphere of this cooperation very much."
Priaxon is entitled to up to EUR 86 million in milestone payments upon achievement of certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones as well as royalties on potential future net sales of products.
About mdm2/p53 Inhibition
The human p53 tumor suppressor protein has been one of the most investigated proteins in cancer research due to the fact that loss of p53 function through mutation and/or deregulation is involved in about 50% of all human cancers. The role of p53 in controlling the cell cycle and monitoring the integrity of the genome has made it known as the "guardian of the genome". Besides the functional loss of p53 through mutation, it can also be inactivated by the overexpression or amplification of MDM2 (murine double minute 2), which is the case in many p53 wild-type tumors. Thus, disruption of the MDM2-p53 interaction is considered a novel therapeutic strategy for cancer cells that still are endowed with wild-type p53, and a variety of small molecule drug like compounds have been reported that bind to the p53 binding site of MDM2.
About Priaxon
Priaxon is an emerging pharmaceutical company building a pipeline of novel drug candidates in different therapeutic fields, but mainly focusing on protein-protein interactions in oncology and other diseases. The goal is to discover and develop candidates for validated but hard-to-drug targets using the proprietary and patented drug discovery platform PriaXplore®.
About Boehringer Ingelheim
The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world's 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, it operates globally with 138 affiliates in 47 countries and 41,300 employees. Since it was founded in 1885, the independent, family-owned company has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing novel products of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine.
Contact Boehringer Ingelheim
Julia Meyer-Kleinmann
Corporate Division Communications
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH
55216 Ingelheim/Germany
Phone: + 49 - 6132 - 77 8271
[email protected]
Twitter: www.twitter.com/boehringer
Contact Priaxon
Dr Jürgen Kolb, CEO
Priaxon AG
Gmunder Str. 37-37a
D-81379 München
Phone: +49 - 89 - 4521308-20
[email protected]
www.priaxon.com