Beactica and Almac Discovery Announce Their First Fragment-Based Drug Discovery Agreement

UPPSALA, Sweden, December 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Beactica, the leading Swedish fragment-based drug discovery company, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Almac Discovery Ltd., an independent member of the Almac Group Ltd. Under the agreement, Beactica will use its proprietary drug discovery platform, Sprint™, to identify high-quality fragment hits against a number of undisclosed targets of therapeutic interest to Almac Discovery.

"We are proud that Almac Discovery has selected Beactica's platform to identify high-quality medicinal chemistry starting points for a number of their prioritised programmes," said Beactica's CEO, Dr Per Källblad. "Our team looks forward to supporting them in their discovery of novel and innovative treatments for cancer."

Prof Tim Harrison, VP Medicinal Chemistry at Almac Discovery, said: "By collaborating with first-class companies, Almac Discovery utilises strategic outsourcing to complement in-house expertise. We have been impressed with Beactica's expertise and capabilities in SPR biosensor-based drug discovery and are looking forward to a fruitful collaboration on these important targets. We plan to take projects to clinical proof of concept (or earlier) before out-licensing or partnering for further development."

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

About Beactica

Beactica AB is a specialist drug discovery company, utilising its proprietary methodologies to evaluate the interaction of molecules in order to generate novel therapeutics. The Company offers expertise and services in the area of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor-based small molecule interaction analysis and partnerships for fragment-based lead generation using its proprietary Sprint™ platform. Founded in 2006 based on research carried out at Uppsala University, Beactica has established a robust reputation as the leader in SPR-based small molecule drug discovery. As well as providing services and building collaborations with external companies, Beactica is progressing its own drug discovery programmes. The company has its headquarter in Uppsala, Sweden. For more information, visit http://www.beactica.com.

About Almac Discovery

Almac Discovery is an independent member of the Almac Group. The company is focused on the discovery and development of novel and innovative approaches to the treatment of cancer and associated conditions, with the goal of developing biomarkers or diagnostic tools in parallel with each potential new therapeutic. Founded in 2008, Almac Discovery is located in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. For more information, visit http://www.almacgroup.com/discovery/.