On June 9, 2021 Vernalis, a fully owned subsidiary of HitGen Inc., and Servier reported the achievement of one research and one pre-clinical milestone in their oncology drug discovery collaboration, triggering undisclosed milestone payments to Vernalis (Press release, Vernalis, JUN 9, 2021, View Source;utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=vernalis-and-servier-achieve-two-milestones-in-their-oncology-drug-discovery-collaboration [SID1234583798]).
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Vernalis and Servier’s partnership has been running successfully since 2007. The collaboration takes advantage of Vernalis’ proprietary fragment and structure-based drug discovery platform, and of Servier’s expertise in medicinal chemistry, cancer biology and pharmacology to bring innovation in oncology one step further.
The collaboration focuses on complicated molecular targets, some of which, like Mcl-1, were considered as undruggable until recently. Previously, has been announced the discovery of the first generation of Mcl-1 inhibitors which have entered clinical trials (published in Nature, 538: 477; ACS Omega, 4: 8892; J. Med. Chem., 63: 13762). The pre-clinical milestone announced today corresponds to a second generation, selective Mcl-1 inhibitor entering pre-clinical development. The research milestone relates to success in early drug discovery against another challenging, promising but undisclosed target.
"These milestones further validate our fragment and structure-based drug discovery platform as well as the strength and success of our relationship with Servier. We look forward to working together to develop exciting new cancer treatment opportunities to add to the already disclosed success in targeting Bcl-2 and Mcl-1", commented James Murray, Research Director at Vernalis.
"These research and clinical milestones are the result of highly interactive joint efforts between chemists, biochemists and biologists from both companies and hopefully will lead to new treatments for cancer patients," Olivier Geneste, Head of Apoptosis and Targeted Therapies Research Program in Oncology at Servier commented. "They illustrate well the innovative freedom that Servier has kept through its important investment in R&D."
Under the current agreement, Vernalis receives fees for work undertaken as well as research and development milestones and potentially royalties on sales.