New company will supervise clinical development of compounds that CG identifies.
CrystalGenomics/CG Pharmaceuticals and venture capital firm ProQuest Investments entered a strategic alliance to create a new entity, Palkion. CrystalGenomics will conduct discovery work, while Palkion will oversee the related clinical programs. The focus will be on compounds that modulate the HIF Prolyl Hydroxylase enzyme system.
CrystalGenomics will receive up to $6 million in upfront and initial research funding from Palkion. CrystalGenomics could also obtain development and sales milestone payments of over $200 million. The firm will also initially own 50% of Palkion. ProQuest will capitalize Palkion with a Series A investment.
CrystalGenomics will use its structure-based drug design capabilities to identify drug candidates. “Through shared responsibilities with Palkion, we will accelerate our drug development process and establish CG as a global-scale pharmaceutical firm,” says Paul Kim, vp and CBO of CrystalGenomics/CG Pharmaceuticals.
