NiKem Research and Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA Extend Research Collaboration

Baranzate (MI) and Parma, Italy, September 6, 2011 / B3C newswire / - Chiesi Farmaceutici and NiKem Research have announced today details of their extended research collaboration within the respiratory therapeutic area. Since 2001 Chiesi and NiKem successfully collaborate on several pre-clinical research projects where NiKem provides design, synthesis, hit validation, lead optimization, biochemical pharmacology and ADMET & PK profiling within different therapeutic areas on a fee-for-service basis.

The current extension involves the period 2011-2014 through a multimillion multi-FTE-based service agreement on pre-clinical projects of interest for Chiesi in the respiratory therapeutic area and, in particular, focused on pathologies such as asthma and COPD.

“The scientific and business relationship with Chiesi is rock solid and the current extension follows 10 years of continuous success for both parties in collaborating to identify novel compounds eligible to candidate status for clinical development”, said Giuseppe Giardina, CEO of NiKem. “The strong expertise, high quality and tangible flexibility of NiKem Team of scientists continue to be the driver for choosing NiKem amongst other providers in the drug discovery arena”.

Paolo Chiesi, R&D Director and Vice-President of Chiesi said: “The collaboration with NiKem was productive and well run by both parties. The partnership with a single provider for multiple integrated medicinal chemistry projects is one of the reasons of this successful partnership. It allows to use at best the resources in biochemical pharmacology and ADMET/PK that should support medicinal chemistry optimization cycles in a flexible format. NiKem has demonstrated to rapidly adapt to Chiesi needs from time to time, with the ultimate goal to deliver successful compounds to the clinic”.

About NiKem Research

NiKem Research was founded in 2001 as a spin-off from the GSK Research Centre in Baranzate, Italy and has a staff of about 60 employees. NiKem established its international reputation as a reliable, high quality Drug Discovery service partner, based on decades of R&D experience and the extent of its capabilities. NiKem offers a full range of synthetic, medicinal, and analytical chemistry, biochemical pharmacology, and extensive in vitro ADMET and in vivo PK services, recently integrated by pre-clinical GLP and clinical GCP Bioanalyses of human samples from Clinical Phases 1-3 and bioequivalence studies. NiKem mission is to translate customers’ discovery biology output into preclinical candidates with enhanced chances of becoming successful drugs by incorporating, early on, as much developability data as possible so as to reduce the downstream development risks.

About Chiesi Farmaceutici

Chiesi Farmaceutici is one of the most dynamic pharmaceutical companies in Europe with over 3,800 employees around the world and revenues exceeding 1,000 million € in 2010. The Group produces and distributes successful drugs in 65 countries and is present in 5 continents with 24 direct affiliates, 4 research centres and 3 production sites. Respiratory pathologies, special care medicine and cardiovascular diseases are its traditional areas of expertise where it offers many therapeutic options recognized for their effectiveness.

Contacts

For NiKem Research:

Pamela Mariani

Tel. +39 02 35694 7428

Fax: +39 02 35694 7606

pamela.mariani@nikemresearch.com

For Chiesi Farmaceutici:

Massimo Zaninelli

Tel. +39 05212791

Fax: +39 0521774468

m.zaninelli@chiesigroup.com

Back to news