MRC Technology and Daiichi Sankyo collaborate to identify novel targets for drug discovery

London, UK, 14 May 2014: MRC Technology, a technology transfer organisation, announced today it has established a drug discovery collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd (Daiichi Sankyo), a global pharmaceutical company with corporate origins in Japan. The agreement will focus on the identification and selection of novel drug targets with the potential to become potent and selective therapeutics for areas including oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

Under the terms of the agreement, MRC Technology will provide Daiichi Sankyo with details of potential drug targets sourced from academia. Daiichi Sankyo will have the opportunity to work with MRC Technology, who is responsible for screening followed by hit validation and future optimization of selected targets, as part of a collaborative project team. The project provides an ideal opportunity to combine the traditional strengths in drug discovery and development of Daiichi Sankyo with the rich knowledge of targets and disease biology available in academia provided by MRC Technology’s Centre for Therapeutics Discovery.

Justin Bryans, MRC Technology’s Director of Drug Discovery said, “Our aim is to translate early stage academic research into new therapeutic opportunities. Collaborating with Daiichi Sankyo early in this process means we can tap into their wealth of drug discovery experience with the view to generating novel chemical entities faster.”

The collaboration agreement was facilitated by MRC Technology’s agent in Japan, Summit Pharmaceuticals International (SPI).

Target information and financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed