Idun Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has extended their worldwide research and development agreement with Abbott Laboratories focusing on the discovery and development of products to treat people with cancer.
Under this agreement, Abbott and Idun will continue their collaboration to discover drugs that regulate the activity of specific proteins involved in the cell pathways leading to programmed cell death, or apoptosis.
This strategic initiative combines proprietary technologies from both Abbott and Idun in a major discovery effort to identify small molecule drugs that kill tumour cells by specifically targeting the apoptosis pathway.
Under the original collaboration, which began in 1998, Idun developed primary molecular assays against targets in the core of the apoptosis pathway.
Abbott uses these assays for high-throughput screening of compound libraries and for compound design using Abbott’s proprietary Structure Activity Relationships by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (SAR by NMR) technology.
Secondary screening is carried out by Idun using its battery of proprietary biological apoptosis assays.
“During the past three years we have made significant progress in the discovery of innovative treatments for cancer through our partnership with Abbott Laboratories,” says Dr. Steven J. Mento, President and CEO, Idun Pharmaceuticals.
“The collaborative program between Abbott and Idun for cancer research has been successful to date and we are pleased to be able to extend our collaboration with Idun,” says Steve Fesik, Ph.D., Divisional Vice President, Cancer Research at Abbott Laboratories.
Idun Pharmaceuticals, Inc. creates innovative human therapeutics with a primary focus on controlling apoptosis, or programmed cell death.
Idun believes that controlling the cell death process will have utility in treating cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, ischemic disorders and cardiovascular disease.