isogenica announces partnership with phylogica

Cambridge-based biotech Isogenica announces new partnership with Phylogica
Isogenica and Phylogica target peptide drugs for inflammatory disease

Isogenica CEO, Kevin Matthews
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PR Log (Press Release) Feb 02, 2010 Isogenica Ltd today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Australian based biopharmaceutical company Phylogica to use Isogenicas CIS display technology to optimize the performance of three of Phylogicas lead compounds targeting CD40 ligand (CD40L). CD40L is a key protein involved in many inflammatory diseases, such as Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

Isogenica (http://www.isogenica.com) specialises in the discovery of therapeutic and diagnostic peptides and proteins using its proprietary technology, CIS display. Founded in 2000 the company has developed a unique capability in the field of peptide engineering. Isogenica's CIS display technology is an in vitro display technology that allows the rapid generation of polypeptide libraries of unprecedented size and complexity from which it is possible to select polypeptides with high affinity and specificity for most targets.

Having already demonstrated lead peptide compounds that bind with high affinity and are biologically active against CD40L, Phylogica (http://www.phylogica.com) will utilise Isogenicas CIS display technology to initiate a comprehensive search process to optimize the exact chemical and three dimensional structure required to further enhance the properties of the Phylomer peptides. Helping improve drug properties such as affinity, stability and potency.

We believe that the use of CIS display will accelerate the rapid entry of Phylogica drug candidates into preclinical development programmes and increase their commercial value, said Professor Paul Watt, Phylogicas VP, Corporate Development. Phylomers are sourced from the most structurally diverse peptide libraries in the world which translates into exceptionally high bioactive hit rates, including primary hits with picomolar affinities for their targets, Prof Watt added.

Kevin Matthews, CEO of Isogenica commented of the partnership: Isogenica is focused on servicing the protein engineering needs of the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. As such we are delighted to have the opportunity to work with Phylogica, combining technologies that have the potential to discover novel and potent therapeutic peptides
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Phylogica joins over a dozen leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies that have already partnered with Isogenica in the discovery of novel peptides for therapeutic and non-therapeutic applications or for licenses. These include Amgen, AstraZeneca, Centocor, GE Healthcare, Invitrogen, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Smiths Detection Systems, UCB, Wyeth.
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About Isogenica: Isogenica specialises in providing protein engineering services using its core technology, CIS display, to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for the discovery, identification and design of new peptide, polypeptide and antibody lead compounds.
CIS display can construct within a few hours polypeptide libraries of unprecedented size and complexity in vitro, without the need for cloning. These can be processed to identify better products and motifs in just a few days. Active peptides with antibody-like levels of affinity and specificity for target compounds can be isolated and then rapidly matured to optimise desirable qualities. CIS display technology has particular benefits against biological membrane preparations, cells and bacteria. The technology is adaptable for the display of different proteins and has been licensed for the Centyrin scaffold. http://www.isogenica.com


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