Cambridge, UK, 7 July 2009: Domainex Ltd (Domainex), a UK-based specialist provider of drug discovery solutions, today announced an extension of its research agreement with Ark Therapeutics Group Ltd (Ark). Under the terms of the agreement Domainex will continue to provide Ark with hit-finding and lead optimisation services for drug discovery against novel and exciting therapeutic targets nominated by the company.
Domainex and Ark have been working closely together for several years, successfully combining Domainex’s capabilities in drug design and lead optimisation with Ark’s disease and molecular biology expertise. Domainex’s experienced research team specialise in the provision of medicinal chemistry, computer-aided drug design, biochemistry, and molecular biology services which are tailored to the specific needs of biotechnology companies and academic research groups. The company is also developing its own pipeline of pre-clinical drugs and targets.
Dr Trevor Perrior, Research Director of Domainex, commented: “Domainex is delighted that Ark has decided to extend our productive relationship. The synergy and teamwork between our respective scientists have been outstanding, and this collaboration has already resulted in the achievement of key breakthroughs against very challenging scientific goals. We look forward to taking these programmes to the next stage of their development, with the aim of delivering important new treatments for major life-threatening diseases. The renewal of this contract is a further illustration of the value that clients such as Ark place on the contribution that Domainex is able to bring to their drug research programmes.”
About Domainex
• Domainex provides innovative drug discovery solutions, including computational and medicinal chemistry, gene cloning and protein expression, to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and to academic research groups.
• Domainex has developed a number of platform technologies specifically aimed at supporting clients and partners who have exciting new drug targets. Its Combinatorial Domain Hunting (CDH) technology can be applied to difficult protein expression problems, to deliver protein constructs that are soluble, stable, and produced in high-yield - thereby opening up the path to high throughput screening, structural biology, or antibody production. Domainex has also developed LeadBuilder - a virtual screening approach which is specifically aimed at identifying hit molecules that are ideally suited for further development.
• The highly-experienced research team at Domainex has an outstanding track record of providing biotechnology companies and university research groups with complementary expertise that is able to take projects from hit-finding, through lead optimisation, and on to drug candidate selection. Several compounds arising from these collaborations are currently in clinical evaluation.
• Domainex works with clients on a fee-for-service basis. The company recently secured investment to establish its own drug discovery pipeline based upon a number of oncology targets. These projects are being progressed using Domainex’s platform technologies
• Domainex is based on the Cambridge Science Park, England and has offices in the London Bioscience Innovation Centre. For more information see: www.domainex.co.uk
