The Hindu Business Line : Aurigene in drug discovery tie-ups

Agreement details
For its tie-up with Merck Serono, the company will receive research funding for lead generation and optimisation and also get milestone payments
In the tie-up with Forest, it will fund and undertake discovery and optimisation of lead compounds in close collaboration with the US scientists

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Bangalore Feb. 3 Aurigene Discovery Technologies Ltd, the Bangalore-based contract research arm of Dr Reddy's Labs, has announced two separate tie-ups to discover potential drugs - one with US company Forest Laboratories Holdings Ltd and another with Merck Serono International S.A.

It will work with Forest on novel small molecule drug candidates for obesity and metabolic disorders. With Merck Serono, it will identify small molecule drugs to treat autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, a release said on Friday.

For its tie-up with Merck Serono, Aurigene will receive research funding for lead generation and optimisation and also get milestone payments.

In the tie-up with Forest, it will fund and undertake discovery and optimisation of lead compounds in close collaboration with the US scientists.

Aurigene stands to receive over $60 million (around Rs 270 crore) in development and sales milestone payments if a compound is successfully commercialised. Forest will pay Aurigene undisclosed research milestones according to a pre-defined research plan, as well as sales milestones upon commercialisation of compounds.

Forest will fund all subsequent drug development and commercialisation activities, besides getting full ownership of the compounds developed under the collaboration and worldwide rights over them.

"Aurigene has been rapidly developing its small molecule discovery capabilities through a number of ongoing programmes at various stages of development," said Mr C.S.N. Murthy, Aurigene CEO.

Dr Ivan Gergel, Senior Vice-President of Scientific Affairs and President of the Forest Research Institute, said, "(Obesity and metabolic disorders) have significant unmet medical needs and we believe the target we have identified holds promise."

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