FORMA meets milestones under Boehringer Ingelheim cancer accord

US drug discovery company FORMA Therapeutics revealed that it has achieved several discovery milestones in its alliance with German family-owned pharma major Boehringer Ingelheim for the discovery of novel drug candidates against protein-protein interactions (PPI) for the treatment of cancer.

Steven Tregay, president and chief executive of FORMA Therapeutics, commented: “Targeting PPIs is highly attractive for therapeutic intervention because they play a vital role in virtually all cellular processes. FORMA’s discovery engine has garnered critical insights into PPIs, which now instruct and guide our drug discovery initiatives.”

The developments come as part of an R&D collaboration signed by the company two years ago, that included $65 million in up-front payments and research funding to screen for and optimize compounds against multiple oncology targets over four years (The Pharma Letter January 6, 2012). FORMA could be eligible for up to $750 million in pre-commercial milestones for programs resulting from the collaboration.

Fast-growing FORMA has a number of collaborations under way with drug majors, including Celgene, Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Biotech, Roche’s Genentech and Japan’s Eisai (TPLs passim).

Novel compounds internalized

As part of the PPI alliance, Boehringer has formally internalized novel compounds for an oncology-relevant PPI program from FORMA. Furthermore, FORMA will continue to conduct screening within the alliance, has expanded chemistry resourcing to prosecute validated scaffolds, and will continue to further interrogate additional targets named within the agreement. FORMA will receive undisclosed payments as part of these recent scientific advancements.

Kenneth Bair, chief scientific officer and head of R&D at FORMA Therapeutics, noted: “The combination of our cell-based screening technology (MAPPIT) and biochemical assay platforms provides a rapid way to screen for PPI inhibitors in two parallel formats, each offering distinct advantages. Further, integrating data from FORMA’s X-ray crystallography efforts across product pipeline targets with CS-Map technology interrogation of the surfaces for all human proteins in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) (~16,000) enabled the design and synthesis of shape-directed compound libraries biased toward shapes of druggable pockets on protein surfaces. The conformational flexibility of these novel molecules has proven essential to identify potential chemical starting material for PPIs of interest.”