Date: Aug 06, 2007 Author: Melior Discovery, Inc. Source: PR Newswire (
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EXTON, Pa., Aug. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Melior Discovery, Inc. today
announced that it has signed an agreement with Johnson & Johnson
Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C. (J&JPRD) to apply Melior's
theraTRACE(SM) indications discovery platform to identify possible new
indications for multiple J&JPRD drug candidates. Financial terms were not
disclosed.
Melior's theraTRACE platform is a comprehensive, multiplexed set of
integrated in vivo models designed to systematically and rapidly identify
previously unknown applications for pharmaceutical compounds. It can be
applied to discovery, development stage and marketed agents and has already
identified novel indications for a number of development stage drugs.
"This agreement presents a significant opportunity for Melior to
deliver value through the application of our unique in vivo testing
platform to a range of pre-clinical and development stage compounds," said
Andrew Reaume, Ph.D., President and CEO of Melior. "Our theraTRACE
indications discovery platform is already proving its value in our existing
collaborations with Merck and Pfizer, as well as in screening for our own
drug development efforts. We are delighted to be working with J&JPRD, and
we look forward to a productive collaboration."
Melior's theraTRACE platform is designed to systematically test the
potential efficacy of compounds across a large number of disease models
rapidly and efficiently, using the same high quality in vivo models
developed by leading pharmaceutical researchers to determine whether a drug
candidate demonstrates sufficient efficacy to merit advancement into
clinical development. Melior's proprietary multiplexed approach integrates
multiple in vivo models and reduces the time, amount of test compound and
number of test subjects needed, while also reducing the number of false
positive results. As a result, Melior's platform provides major
improvements in efficiency and effectiveness and a reduction in the overall
cost of the new indications discovery effort.
About Melior Discovery
Melior Discovery is leading the transformation of pharmaceutical drug
repositioning with its proprietary theraTRACE platform of multiple
integrated in vivo models. Melior is using this unique capability to assist
pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners in realizing the full value of
their pipeline assets and to build an internal pipeline of development
candidates. Dr. Christopher Lipinski, a well-known research pioneer who was
recently named one of the top 10 most influential people in the
pharmaceutical industry, works closely with Melior in the development of
its technology and identification of drug candidates.
