Almac Discovery and HitGen Announce Strategic Research Collaboration

CHENGDU, China, May 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Almac Discovery, the research driven drug discovery company and a member of the Almac Group, today announced a new research collaboration with HitGen Inc. (SSE: 688222.SH), a world leader in the development and application of DNA-encoded library (DEL) technology for novel chemical equity (NCE) generation. The collaboration is focused on the identification of novel compounds against selected Deubiquitinating enzymes (DUB) targets of strategic interest to Almac.

Almac Discovery has built an industry-leading platform to prosecute novel targets emerging from the DUB class of enzymes, an increasingly important target class for drug development, which is underpinned by high quality biological validation linking these targets to disease indications. Almac has utilised this platform to generate its own portfolio of drug discovery programmes, as well as to advance a number of DUB target programmes of interest to pharmaceutical partners through a collaborative model.

In this collaboration, the companies will work together to identify novel chemical compounds against selected DUB targets.  Almac will provide the targets, and HitGen will then screen their expansive library of over 1.2 trillion small molecules against these targets. Initial hits resulting from the screens will be further validated, and those that meet Almac Discovery's selection criteria will be taken forward into discrete research and development programmes. The ultimate objective will be to generate highly potent and selective lead compounds that will allow the pharmacological validation of selected DUB targets in a number of different therapeutic modalities.

Professor Tim Harrison, Vice President of Drug Discovery at Almac Discovery, said: "We are delighted to have signed our latest research collaboration agreement with such an experienced and renowned leader in drug discovery chemistry research. The technology that HitGen has developed perfectly complements our expertise in DUB target chemistry and biology.   

"We are excited at the possibility of utilizing DUBs to enable new approaches to disease modulation and look forward to working with HitGen to develop innovative treatments for diseases with high unmet medical need." 

Dr. Jin Li, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of HitGen, said: "As one of HitGen's four core technology platforms, DEL is an efficient 'engine' to drive drug discovery with proven success. Over the past few years, we have worked with our partners to utilize this platform to generate nearly 500 licensed novel chemical structures for their research projects.  We look forward to working with Almac Discovery to identify novel small molecule starting points from DNA-encoded libraries. We will work closely with Almac Discovery's scientists to generate new lead compounds for their research programs to address unmet medical needs."

HitGen has built four core technology platforms including DNA-encoded library (DEL), molecular fragment and structure design (FBDD/SBDD), synthetic therapeutic oligonucleotide (STO) and targeted protein degradation (TPD). The DEL technology platform, centered around the design, synthesis and interrogation of over one trillion component libraries of DNA-encoded small molecules, is capable of providing services and products including DEL screening, customized DEL library, OpenDEL^® etc.

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