Sareum Regulatory News (SAR)

15 Aug 2006 07:01

Sareum Holdings PLC15 August 2006 For immediate release 15 August 2006 SAREUM HOLDINGS PLC ("Sareum" or the "Company") Second Collaboration with H. Lundbeck A/S Sareum Holdings plc (AIM: SAR), the specialist structure-based drug discoverybusiness, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a second collaborativeagreement with H. Lundbeck A/S (Copenhagen: LUN), an internationalpharmaceutical company with sales of approx. €1.2 Billion in 2005, to provideprotein structure determination capabilities to accelerate drug discoveryresearch at Lundbeck. Under the terms of this 12 month agreement, Sareum will apply its skills in highthroughput protein expression, purification and structure determination toassist Lundbeck's scientists in developing new and improved therapeutics to helppatients suffering from diseases of the central nervous system, Lundbeck's keydrug discovery focus area. In return, Sareum will receive research fees and success milestone payments.Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Commenting on the agreement, Sareum's Chief Executive Officer, Dr Tim Mitchell,said: "We are very pleased that Lundbeck have chosen to broaden theircollaboration with Sareum. Developing longer term relationships with importantcustomers such as Lundbeck is a key component of our business strategy andfurther evidence of our success in being a partner of choice for structure-baseddrug discovery." Commenting on the agreement, Lundbeck's Vice President of Research DK, Dr. KlausPeter Bogeso, said: "Structure-based drug design is an important part of amodern drug discovery strategy, and we look forward to using this broadenedcollaboration with Sareum to enhance the success of our Drug Discovery process.The partnership also further illustrates Lundbeck's commitment to acceleratingthe discovery of novel therapies for patients suffering from neurological andpsychiatric diseases." For further information: Sareum Contacts: Sareum Holdings 01223 497700 Tim Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer Buchanan Communications 020 7466 5000 Tim Anderson, Mary-Jane Johnson Notes for editors: About Sareum Holdings plc Sareum Holdings plc is a structure-based drug discovery business headquarteredin Cambridge, UK. Sareum Limited was formed in August 2003 to discover new drugsfor the treatment of cancer and to provide a range of drug discovery services tothe pharmaceutical industry. Sareum's unique approach aims to halve the time ittakes to discover new drug candidates. A structure-based approach to drug discovery relies on knowledge of thethree-dimensional structure of the proteins that cause disease. Once thestructure is known, potential drugs are designed to 'lock-in' to the proteinwith the aim of reversing or arresting a disease's progression. Knowledge of thestructure of the potential drugs and how they 'lock-in' to the protein permitsthe best potential drug to be discovered. Determining structure is a complextask and requires leading-edge equipment and experienced staff. Sareum'sapproach to structure determination is to produce multiple recombinant proteinsprimarily through a baculovirus expression system and to determine theirstructure using x-ray crystallography. When the structure is determined, the Company's innovative Template Screeningplatform is used to identify novel chemical starting material designed tointeract with the target protein. Sareum then uses its high-throughput medicinalchemistry platform to rapidly optimise these molecules and develop the mostpromising into potential drug candidates. Sareum provides its specialist drug discovery capabilities to partners in thepharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The Company aims to successfullydeliver: Programmes for complete gene-to-candidate structure-based discovery;projects to accelerate or improve the productivity of specific activities; anddrug candidates for licensing at the Phase I or Phase II clinical trials stage. Sareum joined the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in October 2004 andtrades under the symbol SAR. For further information, please visitwww.sareum.co.uk This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange