X-Chem inks drug discovery deal with Astellas Pharma

US privately-held biotech firm X-Chem has entered into a broad drug discovery collaboration with Japanese drug major Astellas Pharma (TYO: 4503).

The collaboration will enable the discovery of novel lead compounds for complex drug targets of interest to Astellas from X-Chem’s growing collection of DNA-encoded DEX libraries containing over 120 billion compounds. This new partnership is X-Chem’s most expansive first-time alliance with a pharmaceutical company, and is aimed at tackling hard-to-drug targets across multiple therapeutic areas at Astellas, says the US firm.

This is by no means X-Chem’s first collaboration with Big Pharma. It has previously entered into discovery collaborations with Germany’s Bayer (BAYN: DE) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) subsidiary Janssen.