26th Sep 2006 07:01
Sareum Holdings PLC26 September 2006 For immediate release 26 September 2006 SAREUM HOLDINGS PLC ("Sareum" or the "Company") Cancer Collaboration with Roche Sareum Holdings plc (AIM: SAR), the specialist structure-based drug discoverybusiness, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a collaborativeagreement with Roche, one of the world's leading research-oriented healthcaregroups, to provide protein structure determination capabilities to accelerateRoche's cancer drug discovery research. Sareum will use its skills in protein engineering and high throughput proteinstructure determination to illustrate the precise nature of how Roche'spotential drug candidates interact with target receptor proteins. This detailedstructural information will support Roche's scientists in their search for newand improved cancer therapeutics by assisting lead optimisation results andproviding co-complex structures for Roche's compounds. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Commenting on the agreement, Sareum's Chief Executive Officer, Dr Tim Mitchell,said: "We are delighted that Roche has chosen Sareum as their partner in proteinstructure determination. This is a further important collaboration that Sareumhas signed with a major global pharmaceutical company and further validationthat Sareum is a partner of choice for structure-based drug discovery." For further information please contact: Sareum Holdings 01223 497700Tim Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer Buchanan Communications 020 7466 5000Tim Anderson, Mary-Jane Johnson About Sareum Holdings plc Sareum Holdings plc is a structure-based drug discovery business headquarteredin Cambridge, UK. Sareum Limited was formed in August 2003 to discover new drugsfor the treatment of cancer and to provide a range of drug discovery services tothe pharmaceutical industry. Sareum's unique approach aims to halve the time ittakes to discover new drug candidates. A structure-based approach to drug discovery relies on knowledge of thethree-dimensional structure of the proteins that cause disease. Once thestructure is known, potential drugs are designed to 'lock-in' to the proteinwith the aim of reversing or arresting a disease's progression. Knowledge of thestructure of the potential drugs and how they 'lock-in' to the protein permitsthe best potential drug to be discovered. Determining structure is a complextask and requires leading-edge equipment and experienced staff. Sareum'sapproach to structure determination is to produce multiple recombinant proteinsprimarily through a baculovirus expression system and to determine theirstructure using x-ray crystallography. When the structure is determined, the Company's innovative Template Screeningplatform can be used to identify novel chemical starting material designed tointeract with the target protein. Sareum can then use its high-throughputmedicinal chemistry platform to rapidly optimise these molecules and develop themost promising into potential drug candidates. Sareum provides its specialist drug discovery capabilities to partners in thepharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The Company aims to successfullydeliver: Programmes for complete gene-to-candidate structure-based discovery;projects to accelerate or improve the productivity of specific activities; anddrug candidates for licensing at the Phase I or Phase II clinical trials stage. Sareum joined the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in October 2004 andtrades under the symbol SAR. For further information, please visitwww.sareum.co.uk This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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