Otsuka Pharmaceutical and X-Chem, a Waltham, Massachusetts-headquartered biotechnology company, have signed a research agreement to advance the discovery process for new Otsuka drug compounds.

Under the agreement, X-Chem will use its DNA-encoded library (DEXTM) screening and informatics platform to search for drug leads for several Otsuka discovery targets. X-Chem received an initial research fee from Otsuka upon the signing of the agreement and is eligible for future payments based on the achievement of research and development milestones as well as royalties and sales milestones on compounds identified under the collaboration that receive regulatory approval. Otsuka says it will furnish several target proteins to X-Chem, independently conduct clinical trials for any compounds identified, and retain exclusive rights to globally commercialize any products resulting from the collaboration.

The collaboration will deploy X-Chem’s DEXTM libraries containing more than 120 billion individually DNA-encoded compounds.

X-Chem says it has established partnerships with AbbVie, Alexion, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Gilead, Janssen, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Ono, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, Taiho Pharma, Vertex, and several other pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology organizations, and academic centers.

Source: X-Chem