Almirall and Proteros achieve milestone

Spain's Laboratorios Almirall and Germany-based Proteros biostructures say that they have achieved a scientific milestone in their collaboration - in force since mid-2006 - to solve structures of a prominent Almirall drug discovery target in combination with its proprietary compounds triggering commercial payments to Proteros.

Proteros applied its industrial structural biology platform and proprietary technologies to deliver protein ligand structures to Almirall scientists for a known, extremel challenging protein where little published data is available, particularly on solving specific protein ligand structures. The German firm delivered the solved structures within the timeframes agreed at the beginning of the collaboration.

Almirall's executive director for the R&D area, Per Olof Andersson said: "the relationship with Proteros is an excellent example of Almirall's strategy of accessing cutting edge science by collaborating with leading external providers to compliment our internal resources and ultimately accelerate our drug discovery programs."