BRIEF—C4X Discovery and HitGen to work together

A collaboration has been forged between British early-stage research firm C4X Discovery (C4XD) and Shanghai-based DNA specialist HitGen.

The deal will see HitGen working to identify novel small molecule hits against an inflammatory target for further development by C4XD.

The Manchester and London-based company is looking to boost its preclinical pipeline, with the goal of out-licensing promising candidates to drug developers.

HitGen will apply its DEL screening technology platform to identify hits against a “commercially valuable target for inflammatory diseases,” while C4XD will use its Conformetrix platform for further development.

C4XD has the option to extend the collaboration with HitGen. Financial terms were not disclosed.