Philogen and The Scripps Research Institute Announce Research Collaboration in the Field of DNA-Encoded Chemistry

SIENA, Italy, January 8, 2018 (Newswire.com) - Philogen S.p.A., a privately owned company, and Scripps Research Institute, a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences, today announced a research collaboration to discover new small molecule-based therapeutics using Philochem’s proprietary ESAC platform and DNA-Encoded Chemistry technology.

“We are extremely pleased to collaborate with Prof. Richard Lerner, a great scientist and innovator, and The Scripps Research Institute, one of the most innovative leaders in pharmaceutical research and education worldwide. We hope our DNA-Encoded Chemistry technology and ESAC platform will contribute to bring innovative treatments for serious unmet medical needs,” commented Professor Dario Neri, co-founder and president of the Scientific Advisory Board of Philogen. 

“It is a privilege to work with the Philogen group,” said Lerner, institute professor and Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Immunochemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. “I feel they are one of the intellectual leaders in this field.”

About the Philogen group

Philogen is a Swiss-Italian clinical-stage company engaged in the discovery and development of novel pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products. Philogen’s strategy is to deliver bioactive agents, for example cytokines or drugs, to the site of disease using antibodies and other ligands that specifically and efficiently target stromal antigens. This technology has generated a strong proprietary pipeline of clinical-stage products and also pre-clinical compounds in an array of disease indications. Philogen is headquartered in Siena, Italy, and has research activities at its subsidiary company Philochem in Zürich, Switzerland. Philogen is independently owned and has signed agreements with several major pharmaceutical companies. For more information, please visit www.philogen.com.

About Philochem’s ESAC platform and DNA-Encoded Chemistry technology

The proprietary ESAC platform and DNA-Encoded Chemistry technology were developed by Philochem scientists in collaboration with the group of Professor Dario Neri at ETH Zurich during the past decade. These two powerful and complementary discovery technologies allow to screen up to billions small molecule compounds in a very fast and efficient manner, and to further optimize the hit compounds in a fully automatic, DNA-tagged, fragment-based drug discovery manner.

About the Scripps Research Institute

The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) is one of the world's largest independent, not-for-profit organizations focusing on research in the biomedical sciences. TSRI is internationally recognized for its contributions to science and health, including its role in laying the foundation for new treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia and other diseases. An institution that evolved from the Scripps Metabolic Clinic founded by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps in 1924, the institute now employs more than 2,500 people on its campuses in La Jolla, California, and Jupiter, Florida, where its renowned scientists - including two Nobel laureates and 20 members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering or Medicine - work toward their next discoveries. The institute's graduate program, which awards Ph.D. degrees in biology and chemistry, ranks among the top 10 of its kind in the nation. In October 2016, TSRI announced a strategic affiliation with the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr), representing a renewed commitment to the discovery and development of new medicines to address unmet medical needs. For more information, see www.scripps.edu.

Source: Philogen S.p.A.