23 Apr 2021 07:00
e-therapeutics plc
("e-therapeutics" or the "Company")
e-therapeutics to receive two key milestone payments from Galapagos
Oxford, UK, 23 April 2021 - e-therapeutics plc (AIM: ETX.L) announces that it has met two key milestones in its collaboration with Galapagos NV ("Galapagos"), a commercial stage company specialised in the discovery and development of small molecule medicines with novel modes of action, with a focus on inflammation, fibrosis and kidney disease. In line with its collaboration announced on 10 June 2020, the Company has met pre-defined operational and success-based milestones, resulting in two payments from Galapagos. Despite the global pandemic, the collaboration has remained on schedule.
e-therapeutics' proprietary, disease-agnostic computational platform centred around network biology enables in silico testing of millions of therapeutic hypotheses. This technology offers a solution to critical challenges in drug discovery through the generation and interrogation of in silico models of biological and disease processes. The Company leverages its platform to identify active compounds with associated mechanistic information as well as novel therapeutic targets.
Using its Network-driven Drug Discovery ("NDD") platform and know-how, e-therapeutics has successfully identified hit compounds against a specific biological process of interest to Galapagos involved in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ("IPF") and potentially in other fibrotic indications. Further to the initial computational phase of the project, experimental testing of the computationally predicted compound set was carried out in several relevant assays and yielded a hit rate orders of magnitude higher than industry standards for early phenotypic drug discovery. The companies will now work to characterise these hits further.
Under the terms of the agreement with Galapagos, e-therapeutics is eligible to receive additional milestone payments through pre-clinical and clinical development as well as commercial milestones. The Company remains free to explore partnering opportunities in all other areas of biology relating to IPF and fibrosis.
Ali Mortazavi, Chief Executive Officer of e-therapeutics, commented: "e-therapeutics' ability to model human disease processes effectively in silico addresses critical limitations of the drug discovery process. Our deeper understanding of underlying disease biology and ability to test millions of possible therapeutic interventions computationally ahead of experimental validation have the potential to mitigate late-stage, costly failures in drug development. The progress made to date in our collaboration with Galapagos to discover novel therapeutics in IPF and fibrosis is yet another validation of our technology platform, which can be applied to any therapeutic area."
Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure - Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.
Enquiries:
e-therapeutics plc |
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Ali Mortazavi, CEO Karl Keegan, CFO Laura Roca-Alonso, CBO | Tel: +44 (0)1993 883 125 www.etherapeutics.co.uk |
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SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP | Tel: +44(0)20 3470 0470 |
Nominated Adviser and Broker |
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Matthew Johnson/Caroline Rowe (Corporate Finance) |
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Vadim Alexandre/Rob Rees (Corporate Broking) |
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About e-therapeutics plc
e-therapeutics plc is an Oxford, UK-based company with a powerful computer-based approach to drug discovery, founded on its industry-leading expertise in network biology to fully capture disease complexity. The Company combines network science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, statistics and big data with expertise in drug discovery and development to transform the search for new medicines and intervention strategies.
e-therapeutics has developed an in silico laboratory that enables the rapid screening of millions of compounds and the identification of small subsets that are enriched for highly active hits. Its proprietary platform also has novel applications in functional genomics, being able to analyse complex genetic datasets, provide a deep understanding of pathological mechanisms and distil actionable insights for the discovery of novel drugs, biomarkers and diagnostics.
e-therapeutics has deployed and validated its disease-agnostic drug discovery platform both in house and with partners, including Novo Nordisk, Galapagos NV and a US-based, top 5 pharmaceutical company.