Ensemble宣布发起一项与Boehringer集团的研发合作，共同致力于小分子药物macrocycles的开发。

Ensemble Therapeutics Corporation, Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation Ink $186 Milliion Macrocycle Drug Pact

11/1/2012 7:53:30 AM

Collaboration to deploy Ensemble’s innovative platform to discover small molecule drug candidates for Boehringer Ingelheim’s targets

Ensemble Therapeutics today announced the initiation of a research collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim to discover drug candidates of a novel class of small molecule drugs, called macrocycles, against several high-value pharmaceutical targets specified by Boehringer Ingelheim.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ensemble is eligible to receive payments and may receive up to $186 million in success milestones in case of full commercial success of multiple drug products, including an upfront payment and research funding. In addition, Ensemble is eligible to receive royalties on future sales of products that arise from the collaboration. Further details of the agreement were not disclosed.

The collaboration will deploy Ensemble’s proprietary drug discovery platforms including its Ensemblin™ collection of about 5 million macrocycles to discover and advance novel drug candidates against Boehringer Ingelheim’s drug targets. Boehringer Ingelheim will have the exclusive right to develop and commercialize substances arising from the collaboration.

“This collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim builds on Ensemble’s business strategy to partner with leading pharmaceutical companies and further validates the wide-ranging potential of our Ensemblin drug discovery platforms while providing Ensemble with additional funding to advance our own internal pipeline,” said Dr. Michael D. Taylor, CEO of Ensemble Therapeutics.

About Ensemblins

Ensemblins™ are a new class of synthetic macrocycles developed by Ensemble using its proprietary chemistry platforms, including DNA-Programmed Chemistry. Macrocyclic rings are found in many natural product-based drugs and bestow favorable pharmaceutical properties and powerful protein surface binding properties upon such drugs. Thus, macrocycles are uniquely suited to address many protein targets that cannot be modulated effectively by traditional small molecule pharmaceutical compounds. Macrocycles have been challenging to synthesize in large numbers and this has constrained their wider use in the industry. By extending beyond the limits of traditional small molecule drug discovery, Ensemble’s platform provides unmatched capabilities to successfully and reliably generate millions of macrocyclic Ensemblins as drug candidates, larger than any collection previously synthesized in the pharmaceutical industry.

About Ensemble Therapeutics

Based in Cambridge, MA, Ensemble Therapeutics is deploying its proprietary chemistry platforms to develop a novel class of therapeutics known as “Ensemblins”. Ensemble is leveraging its macrocycle drug discovery expertise to fuel its proprietary drug candidate pipeline while also pursuing collaborations with pharmaceutical partners. Prior to this agreement, Ensemble entered high-value partnerships including alliances with Genentech, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer to access Ensemble’s macrocycle libraries for purposes of affinity screening drug discovery against difficult-to-address targets. Ensemble’s internal discovery and development efforts are focused on the key therapeutic areas of oncology and immuno-inflammatory diseases, with its lead program, a small molecule antagonist of Interleukin-17, a cytokine implicated in multiple inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, poised to enter development with an orally active candidate in early 2013. For more information, visit: www.ensembletx.com.