Start-up Proteologics announced today the signing of a Feasibility Study Agreement with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) involving novel drugs targeting ubiquitin ligases for cancer therapy.
Proteologics will carry out a feasibility study involving target discovery and early drug development in return for certain payments. Teva has an option to continue drug development through commercialization by signing a definitive license and collaboration agreement with Proteologics, under which, Proteologics will be entitled to milestone payments and royalties.
As part of the agreement, Teva also made an equity investment of a few million dollars in Proteologics.
Proteologics is focused on ubiquitin ligase target and drug discovery. The company’s scientific advisory board is led by Prof. Avram Hershko and Prof. Aaron Ciechanover, the 2004 Nobel Prize laureates in chemistry for their discovery of the ubiquitin system. The ubiquitin system is involved in major human diseases including cancer, AIDS, neuro-degeneration and immune disorders.
Proteologics CEO Avishai Levy said, “The collaboration with Teva allows us to expand the company’s research and development activities by adding promising projects in the cancer field. We look forward to benefiting from Teva’s experience in drug development.”
Proteologics was founded in 1999; it is privately held Delaware Corporation, with R&D performed at its wholly owned Israeli subsidiary, Proteologics, Ltd. To date, the company has raised $27 million from investors including Concord Ventures (Israel), Reslo Life Sciences Ltd. (Israel), Alex Brown Deutsche Bank (US), Giza Fund (GE Capital; Israel) and The Challenge Fund (Etgar Israel).
Proteologics in-house research programs are focused on the HIV / AIDS area. Proteologics has discovered three ubiqutin ligases as novel drug targets against HIV, and continues to discover small molecule inhibitors based on two of these targets. Such inhibitors have the potential to become the first broad-spectrum anti-viral drugs, which will be effective against several viral diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis, West Nile Fever virus, and perhaps influenza.
The ubiquitin system is involved in a growing list of diseases across many therapeutic areas. These diseases are mainly attributed to the activity of ubiquitin ligases, a class of more than 1,000 highly diverse and specific regulatory enzymes. Proteologics identifies ubiquitin ligases with a causative role in human diseases and subsequently perform drug discovery based on these targets.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on Tuesday, May 03, 2005