Launch of Consultancy Service
e-Therapeutics plc
06 May 2008
Press Release 6th May 2008
e-Therapeutics plc
('e-Therapeutics' or 'the Company')
Launch of a Consultancy Service for Drug Discovery and Development
e-Therapeutics plc (AIM: ETX), the systems biology drug discovery company, today
announces the launch of its new consultancy service. The service will enable
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to use the Company's proprietary and
patented in silico technology to analyse their drug compounds for indication,
efficacy and toxicity.
e-Therapeutics' in silico technology accurately predicts the holistic effects of
compounds within the body and enables rapid and accurate efficacy and toxicity
identifications at a lower cost than traditional discovery methods.
e-Therapeutics has already used its technology in a number of projects with
companies including GlaxoSmithKline plc, Mylan Laboratories Inc, Chakra Biotech
Pte Ltd and Cambridge Laboratories Ltd.
Malcolm Young, CEO of e-Therapeutics, commented: 'Our technology rapidly
predicts how new medicines will interact with cells and other drugs in the body.
This maximises the probability of identifying drug candidates with the
desirable combination of high efficacy and low toxicity. Our approach is
cost-effective and will permit partners to de-risk investment decisions before
they commit the substantial sums required to bring a new drug through clinical
development. Older, conventional approaches have not proven accurate enough to
produce safe and effective drugs, evidenced by the recognised industry problem
of an unsustainable attrition rate.'
The Company is offering a range of unique services for the evaluation of
candidate drugs, these include:
• determining mode of action;
• predicting efficacy;
• identifying appropriate positioning against competing drugs;
• identifying potential toxicity, safety and tolerance problems; and
• characterising possible drug interactions.
Clients using these services are able to make more informed judgements regarding
the value of their candidates before committing further investment.
e-Therapeutics' reports also provide clarity and additional information to
support patent applications.
In addition to these services, e-Therapeutics is offering its unique
capabilities to collaborate with partners in a variety of ways, including
establishing alternative therapeutic uses for compounds, and analysis of entire
compound libraries.
John Cordiner, Commercial and Finance Director, commented: 'Our consulting and
contract research projects have up to now effectively sold themselves. We now
have a substantial track record of delivering significant value to our partners
in these projects, and so now is the time to make our capabilities more widely
known to other discovery and development programmes, so that they can also
benefit.'
Drugs are active through multiple interactions with many proteins and genes.
The conventional approach of focusing on single drug targets has led to
incorrect conclusions on efficacy and safety and has proven hugely expensive for
a number of companies as candidate drugs fail in late-stage development. The
single target approach also makes it very difficult to address multi-factorial
disease.
e-Therapeutics' technology has been carefully validated by back-testing. Using
only internal data resources and analyses, the technology has successfully
identified the known drugs for selected specific diseases, and also all the
secondary effects of other drugs in these diseases that have been reported in
the literature. For example, in a sweep across 97 bacterial pathogens, the
e-Therapeutics technology not only successfully identified all currently known
antibiotic classes, including 103 known and secondary effect antibiotics, but
also found several entirely novel antibiotic candidates that have since
demonstrated positive effects in the laboratory.
- ENDS -
For further information:
e-Therapeutics plc www.etherapeutics.co.uk
Malcolm Young +44 (0)191 233 1317
malcolm@etherapeutics.co.uk
Nominated Advisor:
WH Ireland
Richard Lindley +44 (0)113 394 6628
richard.lindley@wh-ireland.co.uk
Broker:
Cornhill Asset Management
Tom Whitehead +44 (0) 207 645 8327
tomw@cornhillassetmanagement.com
Andrew Houchin +44 (0) 207 743 6468
andrewh@cornhillassetmanagement.com
Media enquiries:
Abchurch www.abchurch-group.com
Heather Salmond +44 (0) 207 398 7711
Heather.salmond@abchurch-group.com
Stephanie Cuthbert +44 (0) 207 398 7718
stephanie.cuthbert@abchurch-group.com
Notes to Editors
e-Therapeutics plc is a systems biology drug discovery company. It has
developed proprietary computational systems to swiftly and accurately analyse
and predict how medicines interact with cells in the body. This optimises the
probability of identifying drug candidates with desirable efficacy and low
toxicity. The Company applies its novel, systematic approach to three areas of
activity:
• Discovery of new drugs;
• Discovering novel uses for existing drugs; and
• Analysis of the interactions between different drugs.
Amongst e-Therapeutics' pipeline of compounds in development are novel
antibiotics that have been shown to kill the 'superbug' MRSA, and a novel cancer
chemotherapy that has been shown to kill malignant cells at safe doses in a very
short time. Other candidate therapies in development are targeted at
atherosclerosis, asthma and depression. The Company is currently in
negotiations with a number of pharmaceutical companies, and is progressing the
preclinical and clinical development of these products.
For further information on e-Therapeutics visit www.etherapeutics.co.uk.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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