Sareum Regulatory News (SAR)

19 Jan 2006 07:00

Sareum Holdings PLC19 January 2006 For immediate release 19 January 2006 SAREUM HOLDINGS PLC ("Sareum" or the "Company") Sareum Announces Collaboration with Top 50 Pharma* - H. Lundbeck A/S Sareum Holdings plc (AIM: SAR), the specialist structure-based drug discoveryand services business, is pleased to announce that it has entered into acollaborative agreement with H. Lundbeck A/S (Copenhagen: LUN), an internationalpharmaceutical company with sales of approx. €1.3 Billion in 2004, to provideprotein structure determination capabilities to accelerate drug discoveryresearch at Lundbeck. Sareum will apply its skills in high throughput proteinexpression, purification and structure determination to explain the exact natureof the interaction of Lundbeck's potential drug candidates with their targetprotein receptor. This information is invaluable in helping Lundbeck's scientists to develop newand improved therapeutics to help patients suffering from neurologicalconditions such as Alzheimer's disease, one of Lundbeck's key drug discoveryfocus areas. In return, Sareum will receive research fees and success milestone payments, themajority of which are expected to be recognized in the financial year to June2006. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. This is the third announcement relating to the trading update issued by Sareumon 5th January 2006 where Sareum stated that it had entered into severalcollaborations in late December, one of which is with Lundbeck. Commenting on the agreement, Sareum's Chief Executive Officer, Dr Tim Mitchell,said: "We are very pleased that Lundbeck has selected to work with Sareum astheir partner in protein structure determination. This is a further importantcollaboration that Sareum has entered into with another top 50 internationalpharmaceutical company, and we look forward to successful delivery of thisproject to Lundbeck." Commenting on the agreement, Lundbeck's Vice President of Research, Dr. PeterHongaard Andersen, said: "Structure based drug design is an important aspect inmodern drug discovery strategies and we expect this collaboration with Sareumwill enhance our Drug Discovery process. The partnership also furtherillustrates Lundbeck's commitment to accelerating the discovery of noveltherapies for patients suffering from neurological and psychiatric diseases." * By 2004 Global Pharma Sales For further information: Sareum Contacts:Sareum Holdings 01223 497700Tim Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer Buchanan Communications 020 7466 5000Tim Anderson, Mary-Jane Johnson Notes for editors: About Sareum Holdings plc Sareum Holdings plc is a specialist structure based drug discovery and servicesbusiness headquartered in Cambridge, UK. The Company was formed in August 2003to discover new drugs for the treatment of cancer and to provide a range of drugdiscovery services to the pharmaceutical industry. Sareum's unique approach aimsto halve the time it takes to discover new drug candidates. Structure-based drug discovery involves the determination of a disease causingprotein's three-dimensional structure. Once the structure is known, novelchemical entities are designed to 'lock-in' to the protein with the aim ofreversing or arresting a disease's progression. Sareum's approach to structure based drug discovery is to produce multiplerecombinant proteins primarily through a baculovirus expression system;determine their structure using x-ray crystallography; and then use itsinnovative template-molecule x-ray screening technology to identify new chemicalentities designed to interact with the target protein. Sareum then uses itshigh-throughput medicinal chemistry platform to rapidly synthesise furthermolecules and develop the most promising 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