Drug discovery programs boosted

Institut Pasteur Korea (IP-K) has signed an agreement with sanofi-aventis Research & Development of Toulouse, France to continue research on the identification of new medicines.

The partnership, extending an agreement drawn up in the fall of 2009, illustrates the value of IP-K's PhenomicScreen™ to the pharmaceutical industry. The technology platform will be used to pinpoint active, non-toxic agents in sanofi-aventis' proprietary chemical compound library.

The high-throughput, high-content visual screening approach of PhenomicScreen™ is well suited to identifying lead compounds. Dr. Priscille Brodin of IP-K explains that "Our phenotypic approach does not rely on a predefined target, but rather simultaneously selects both chemical compounds and an unknown cellular target solely by the clearly discernible effect on the disease model". The advantage, according to IP-K's Dr. Jonathan Cechetto, is that "The process has the ability to select novel targets, and only those which are functionally significant in the disease process".

Commenting on the new agreement with sanofi-aventis, Laurent Fraisse, director of infectious diseases research said "Over the past year the collaboration has made important strides in identifying potential new drugs, and we are pleased to extend our agreement with IP-K."

Center Director of Core Technologies of Institut Pasteur Korea Dr. Veronica Soloveva believes that the agreement is a vindication of the institute's innovative approach to drug discovery. "Phenomic technology increases the accuracy and speed of drug discovery", she said, "And we are delighted to be working with sanofi-aventis to accelerate their identification of new compounds".

Provided by Institut Pasteur Korea