Asterand, through its BioSeek subsidiary, entered a one-year collaboration with Amylin Pharmaceuticals to find drug candidates for a range of inflammatory conditions. BioSeek will apply its BioMAP® predictive human disease models to screen Amylin’s PHORMOL library to discover therapeutic peptides.
Amylin’s current pipeline comprises drug candidates for metabolic disorders. Various formulations of Byetta are being investigated as a treatment of diabetes; the injectable version is approved in the same indication. Amylin also has an obesity therapy and a molecule for severe lipodystrophy in Phase II and Phase III trials, respectively.
The deal with Asterand follows similar agreements in recent years between the two companies involving peptide screening and related drug discovery activities. BioMAP Systems are primary cell-based models of human disease biology, designed to replicate the intricate cell and pathway interactions as they are observed in human pharmacology and toxicology.
Depending on their mechanism of action, drug compounds induce specific patterns of changes in these systems (BioMAP profiles) that can be compared to a large number of reference profiles in the BioMAP Database.