CAMBRIDGE, England and SANTA ROSA, California, May 9 /PRNewswire/ -- De Novo Pharmaceuticals Ltd., a world leader in computational drug design, has announced that it is expanding its drug design business to establish a new therapeutic focus in the area of metabolic diseases. To help support this and strengthen the Company’s scientific base, it has appointed a new Scientific Advisory Board.
De Novo will use SkelGen(R), the Company’s proprietary in silico drug design platform, to discover new drugs for significant targets within the metabolic diseases field. SkelGen is a structure-based drug design technology platform, which has been shown to improve the speed and effectiveness of the drug discovery process.
Dr Brian Adger has been appointed as Chairman of the new Scientific Advisory Board, together with Dr John Dixon and Dr Peter Warne.
Brian Adger has over 30 years industrial experience within the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and fine chemical sectors. With particular expertise in complex organic synthesis and chiral technologies, Dr Adger is currently an industry consultant and is chairman of the SAB of Johnson Matthey Catalysis. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
John Dixon is a Medicinal Chemist with 33 years experience in Pharmaceutical Research & Development. He is the inventor of a marketed cardiovascular drug and of several other compounds that reached advanced stages in clinical development. He is currently Vice President of Drug Discovery at AstraZeneca R&D Charnwood, with responsibility for over 400 scientists. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and a Member of the American Chemical Society.
Peter Warne is a biologist with 25 years experience in pharmaceutical drug discovery and its management. He has, both as a research program leader and a director of discovery projects at Rhone Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi-Aventis), gained first hand experience of progressing drugs from early concepts through to Phase II clinical trials. Dr Warne is currently director of Biointerface Ltd - a consultancy and freelance medical writing company.
Philip Dean, Chief Scientific Officer at De Novo, commented: “Metabolic diseases is an important therapeutic area with many targets that present a major opportunity for De Novo’s technologies. The appointment of the Scientific Advisory Board brings the expertise required to keep De Novo at the forefront of in-silico drug design as we extend the Company’s capabilities in this new therapeutic area.”
About De Novo Pharmaceuticals
De Novo Pharmaceuticals is a world leader in the field of computational drug design. The Company provides services to drug discovery customers seeking rapid progress from validated target to novel hits, and to medicinal chemistry groups interested in focused libraries. De Novo is currently seeking to establish additional drug discovery collaborations with biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
For more information about De Novo, our technology and how we work with our partners please visit our website at www.denovopharma.com.
De Novo Pharmaceuticals Ltd
CONTACT: Media enquiries: Northbank Communications Ltd, Lorna Watson orSue Charles, Tel: +44-207-886-8157, l.watson@northbankcommunications.com,s.charles@northbankcommunications.com. De Novo Pharmaceuticals Ltd: BillHarris, Director of Drug Design, Tel: +44-1223-238000,Bill.Harris@denovopharma.com
