ETX.L Regulatory News (ETX)

6 May 2008 07:03

e-Therapeutics plc06 May 2008 Press Release 6th May 2008 e-Therapeutics plc ("e-Therapeutics" or "the Company") Launch of a Consultancy Service for Drug Discovery and Development e-Therapeutics plc (AIM: ETX), the systems biology drug discovery company, todayannounces the launch of its new consultancy service. The service will enablepharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to use the Company's proprietary andpatented in silico technology to analyse their drug compounds for indication,efficacy and toxicity. e-Therapeutics' in silico technology accurately predicts the holistic effects ofcompounds within the body and enables rapid and accurate efficacy and toxicityidentifications at a lower cost than traditional discovery methods.e-Therapeutics has already used its technology in a number of projects withcompanies including GlaxoSmithKline plc, Mylan Laboratories Inc, Chakra BiotechPte Ltd and Cambridge Laboratories Ltd. Malcolm Young, CEO of e-Therapeutics, commented: "Our technology rapidlypredicts how new medicines will interact with cells and other drugs in the body.This maximises the probability of identifying drug candidates with thedesirable combination of high efficacy and low toxicity. Our approach iscost-effective and will permit partners to de-risk investment decisions beforethey commit the substantial sums required to bring a new drug through clinicaldevelopment. Older, conventional approaches have not proven accurate enough toproduce safe and effective drugs, evidenced by the recognised industry problemof an unsustainable attrition rate." The Company is offering a range of unique services for the evaluation ofcandidate drugs, these include: • determining mode of action;• predicting efficacy;• identifying appropriate positioning against competing drugs;• identifying potential toxicity, safety and tolerance problems; and• characterising possible drug interactions. Clients using these services are able to make more informed judgements regardingthe value of their candidates before committing further investment.e-Therapeutics' reports also provide clarity and additional information tosupport patent applications. In addition to these services, e-Therapeutics is offering its uniquecapabilities to collaborate with partners in a variety of ways, includingestablishing alternative therapeutic uses for compounds, and analysis of entirecompound libraries. John Cordiner, Commercial and Finance Director, commented: "Our consulting andcontract research projects have up to now effectively sold themselves. We nowhave a substantial track record of delivering significant value to our partnersin these projects, and so now is the time to make our capabilities more widelyknown to other discovery and development programmes, so that they can alsobenefit." Drugs are active through multiple interactions with many proteins and genes.The conventional approach of focusing on single drug targets has led toincorrect conclusions on efficacy and safety and has proven hugely expensive fora number of companies as candidate drugs fail in late-stage development. Thesingle target approach also makes it very difficult to address multi-factorialdisease. e-Therapeutics' technology has been carefully validated by back-testing. Usingonly internal data resources and analyses, the technology has successfullyidentified the known drugs for selected specific diseases, and also all thesecondary effects of other drugs in these diseases that have been reported inthe literature. For example, in a sweep across 97 bacterial pathogens, thee-Therapeutics technology not only successfully identified all currently knownantibiotic classes, including 103 known and secondary effect antibiotics, butalso found several entirely novel antibiotic candidates that have sincedemonstrated positive effects in the laboratory. - ENDS - For further information: e-Therapeutics plc www.etherapeutics.co.ukMalcolm Young +44 (0)191 233 1317malcolm@etherapeutics.co.uk Nominated Advisor:WH IrelandRichard Lindley +44 (0)113 394 6628richard.lindley@wh-ireland.co.uk Broker:Cornhill Asset ManagementTom Whitehead +44 (0) 207 645 8327tomw@cornhillassetmanagement.comAndrew Houchin +44 (0) 207 743 6468andrewh@cornhillassetmanagement.com Media enquiries:Abchurch www.abchurch-group.comHeather Salmond +44 (0) 207 398 7711Heather.salmond@abchurch-group.comStephanie Cuthbert +44 (0) 207 398 7718stephanie.cuthbert@abchurch-group.com Notes to Editors e-Therapeutics plc is a systems biology drug discovery company. It hasdeveloped proprietary computational systems to swiftly and accurately analyseand predict how medicines interact with cells in the body. This optimises theprobability of identifying drug candidates with desirable efficacy and lowtoxicity. The Company applies its novel, systematic approach to three areas ofactivity: • Discovery of new drugs; • Discovering novel uses for existing drugs; and • Analysis of the interactions between different drugs. Amongst e-Therapeutics' pipeline of compounds in development are novelantibiotics that have been shown to kill the "superbug" MRSA, and a novel cancerchemotherapy that has been shown to kill malignant cells at safe doses in a veryshort time. Other candidate therapies in development are targeted atatherosclerosis, asthma and depression. The Company is currently innegotiations with a number of pharmaceutical companies, and is progressing thepreclinical and clinical development of these products. For further information on e-Therapeutics visit www.etherapeutics.co.uk. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange