Polyphor and Gilead partner on macrocycle drug discovery

Privately-held Swiss firm Polyphor has signed a collaboration and license agreement with US biotech major Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD). The collaboration aims to identify and optimize macrocycle molecules addressing challenging biological targets selected by Gilead.

Under the terms of the deal, Polyphor will receive an upfront payment and research funding, and will be eligible for further milestone payments. Further financial terms were not revealed. In the initial phase of the collaboration Polyphor will apply its entire macrocycle platform consisting of non-peptidic macrocyles (MacroFinder), peptidic macrocycles (PEMfinder, protein-epitope mimetics) and phage display of PEM-like molecules (PEMphage) to generate tractable macrocycle hit families for further optimization.

Dr Daniel Obrecht, chief scientific officer of Polyphor, said: "The collaboration with Gilead is another important milestone for Polyphor. Applying Polyphor's proprietary macrocycle platform in joint drug discovery projects maximizes the value of the technology for our partners and us. Partnerships with biopharmaceutical companies are a key element of our strategy to realize the full potential of this novel drug class, while focusing our own R&D activities on novel antibiotics and rare respiratory diseases."