• 08 Feb 2020
• Admin
• News Article

ALK-Abelló and X-Chem Announce Drug Discovery Collaboration

X-Chem, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company focused on applying its next-generation, industry-leading DNA-Encoded library (DEX™) drug discovery platform to the generation of novel small molecule therapeutics, announced today a drug discovery partnership with ALK-Abelló A/S (ALK), a Danish pharmaceutical company focused on the prevention and treatment of allergies. This collaboration will focus on the discovery of small molecule drug products to treat broad ranging allergies. Under the terms of the agreement, X-Chem will utilize its DEX screening platform, which takes advantage of advanced drug-like DEX library designs and proprietary informatics tools, to search for novel leads for allergy targets identified by ALK. X-Chem’s DEX libraries enable fast and efficient screening of vast areas of drug-like chemical space leading to the discovery of novel hits for some of the most challenging biological targets. ALK and X-Chem will collaborate to jointly advance identified hits to the clinic, leveraging X-Chem’s expertise in medicinal chemistry with ALK’s expertise in assays, animal models, and clinical development for the treatment of allergies. ALK has the exclusive global rights to commercialize any products resulting from the collaboration. “The collaboration between X-Chem and ALK combines technologies and areas of expertise from both companies, making this joint discovery effort in the allergy space second to none,” said Teit Johansen, Senior VP of Global Research at ALK. “At ALK, we look forward to working with X-Chem and leveraging their powerful drug-discovery platform to identify new drug leads for the treatment of allergy with its many disease manifestations. X-Chem is the clear leader in the field of encoded-libraries and we believe that X-Chem is the right partner for ALK to fuel our ambition of discovering new and innovative drugs in the field of allergy treatment.” “We are honored that ALK chose X-Chem as its partner for drug discovery,” said Christelle Huguet, Chief Scientific Officer at X-Chem. “We are deeply impressed with ALKs expertise in allergy pathway biology and the tools and assays that they bring to the collaboration. We look forward to a long-term scientific collaboration with the ALK team to make advances in allergy treatment together.” X-Chem received an upfront payment from ALK upon the signing of the agreement, and is eligible for future research payments and milestones based on the achievement of pre-defined research achievements. In addition, X-Chem is also eligible to receive further payments upon ALK reaching certain regulatory and sales milestones, and royalties on sales of products identified under the collaboration.