Almirall extends R&D accord with Sareum

Almirall, Spain's leading pharmaceutical firm, has extended the collaboration with Sareum Holdings, a specialist structure-based drug discovery and services business based in Cambridge, UK, to provide its expertise in the elucidation of 3D protein conformations to accelerate Almirall's R&D efforts.

Following the successful completion of a collaboration the companies signed last year (Marketletter August 15, 2005), Almirall will continue to utilize Sareum's skills with the aim of illustrating how potential drug candidates interact with their target proteins. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Commenting on the agreement, Almirall's executive director for R&D, Per-Olof Andersson, said: "the resolution of the crystal structure of compound-protein complexes has permitted the elucidation of the mode of binding of different compound families to the target protein. This has been an inestimable help in the design of novel potential drug candidates with greater potency and selectivity for this therapeutic target in rheumatoid arthritis. We are, therefore, pleased to extend our successful collaboration with Sareum, so that our scientists can continue to rely on this powerful research tool."