Teva will finance the in vivo screening platform, receive a minority equity interest, and can in license five drug candidates.
Teva Pharmaceuticals and Jexys Pharmaceuticals has signed an R&D agreement that includes platform development and drug discovery. Teva will finance Jexys Pharmaceuticals’ development of a high-throughput drug discovery platform. In return it will receive a minority equity interest in Jexys Pharmaceuticals.
Teva also has the option to choose and in-license five drug candidates discovered by Jexys at the completion of the program.
“The novel drug discovery platform developed by Jexys takes advantage of one of the most accessible and cost-effective biological model systems, namely yeast, in order to quickly and efficiently screen potential drug candidates to treat a host of human diseases,” explians Nava Swersky Sofer, CEO of Yissum.
Jexys’ in vivo screening platform has isolated novel molecules that could treat inflammatory conditions by inhibiting an enzyme called p38. The system ensures that the newly discovered compounds are not cytotoxic, are capable of crossing the cell’s membrane, and are specific, according to Jexys.
This agreement is an extension of a collaboration signed in October 2006 between the two companies.
