Dundee spin-out Ex Scientia signs collaboration agreement with US-based pharmaceutical Sunovion.
Ex Scientia, a drug discovery spin-out of Dundee University, has signed a collaboration agreement worth $4.8m with US-based Sunovion Pharmaceuticals. The deal will see the two companies research new therapies for psychiatric disorders.
Ex Scientia has received an upfront payment of $1m. The agreement gives Sunovion exclusive worldwide rights to drugs discovered. The spin-out meanwhile retains all rights to its technology.
Ex Scientia’s technology, a systematic algorithmic discovery platform, is able to program specific targets into a compound. Crucially, and ground-breakingly, the spin-out is also able to design compound to ignore specific targets and thus prevent side effects.
Andrew Hopkins, founder and chief executive of Ex Scientia, said: “We are delighted to collaborate with Sunovion on this exciting approach to discovering new treatments for complex psychiatric diseases. This partnership establishes our design platform as a method of choice for data-driven phenotypic drug discovery. The agreement shows the power of applying a polypharmacology philosophy to challenging disease areas and our commitment to building strategic partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies to deliver novel medicines.”
