Tranzyme Pharma has completed the chemistry-based drug discovery partnership and transferred the resulting compounds to Bristol-Myers Squibb to advance the development.
The strategic collaboration leveraged Macrocyclic Template Chemistry, Tranzyme's chemistry technology, in the discovery of active macrocycles against a range of biological targets.
Resulting macrocycles feature high potency and selectivity, high oral availability, good tissue and cell permeability and low cost of goods.
As per the agreement signed between the companies in 2009, Tranzyme will preserve the choice to additionally track chosen targets internally.
Tranzyme research and preclinical development senior vice president Helmut Thomas said the company is now transitioning the compounds resulting from the discovery collaboration to its partner for further development.
"This milestone serves to further validate our technology's broad application to a diverse range of difficult drug targets and its value in the discovery of drugs for the treatment of diseases far beyond our own internal focus on gastrointestinal and metabolic disorders," Thomas added.
According to the deal, Tranzyme is responsible for early lead compound discovery while Bristol-Myers is responsible optimization, preclinical and clinical development in addition to worldwide commercialization of the resulting compounds.
Tranzyme is expected to gain approximately $80m as total milestone payments for every target program.
