Alchemia Strengthens VASTTM R&D with the Establishment of an International Scientific Advisory Board

BRISBANE, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alchemia Limited (ASX:ACL) today announced the establishment of a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) comprising several international experts, with significant research and commercialisation experience, to guide the development of Alchemia’s VAST^TM drug discovery platform.

“the expertise and backgrounds of the respected individuals comprising the Alchemia SAB are perfectly suited to understand the risk-reward nature of various GPCR drug markets and maximize the value of Alchemia’s revolutionary drug discovery technology”

Peter Smith, CEO of Alchemia, said he was delighted that Alchemia had successfully attracted a team of this caliber. The SAB includes internationally renowned experts in the fields of GPCR pharmacology, toxicology, drug design and development, medicinal chemistry and molecular diversity, all of which are necessary for the successful development and commercialization of Alchemia’s drug discovery platform, VAST^TM.

The SAB will be chaired by Dr Tracie Ramsdale, one of Alchemia’s founders and former CEO. Dr. Ramsdale, an inventor of the VAST^TM technology, said “the expertise and backgrounds of the respected individuals comprising the Alchemia SAB are perfectly suited to understand the risk-reward nature of various GPCR drug markets and maximize the value of Alchemia’s revolutionary drug discovery technology”.

Rather than targeting so called ‘me-too’ drugs, which offer little or no clinical improvements over already marketed drugs, Alchemia will target indications which are still associated with significant disability or death, i.e. diseases for which there is a significant unmet medical need.

Alchemia’s SAB

Arthur Christopoulos, PhD

Dr Christopoulos is a world leader in the field of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) and in the application of analytical pharmacology to understanding drug mechanisms. He is an author of over 80 scientific articles, including approaches for detecting and quantifying the effects of allosteric modulators on GPCRs, as well as methods for quantifying drug-receptor interactions. He serves/has served on the Editorial Board of 8 international journals and is the recipient of numerous international and national prizes and awards for his research. Dr. Christopoulos is Professor of Pharmacology and co-Director of the Drug Discovery Biology Laboratory, Monash University, and a Senior Research Fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

John Flack, PhD

Dr Flack has over 30 years experience in pharmaceutical R&D. He was Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery for SmithKline Beecham (Europe, UK and Australia) and Director of Preclinical Development for Beecham. During the 24 years at Beecham and SB he was associated with the discovery and or development of medicines that have significantly advanced the fields of antibacterial, antiviral, antiinflammatory, antiemetic and antidepressant therapeutics. He then served as Director of Pharmaceutical Development Services for Covance in the UK. His last executive role was as R&D director for Melbourne-based biotechnology company, Amrad. Since his retirement in 2001, he has held several positions on the scientific advisory boards of biotechnology companies in Australia and New Zealand.

Garland R. Marshall, Ph.D.

Dr Marshall is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University. In 1979, he founded Tripos Associates, vendor of computer-aided molecular design software. Dr. Marshall received the 1988 Award in Medicinal Chemistry and the 1996 Midwest Award in Chemistry from the ACS (American Chemical Society). He was recently selected for the ACS Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame. Awards in peptide chemistry include the 1994 Vincent du Vigneaud Award, the 2000 Cathay Award (Chinese Peptide Society) and the prestigious 2001 Merrifield Award (American Peptide Society). Prof. Marshall also serves on the SAB of the Institute for Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, the SAB of the Drug Discovery Institute of the University of Minnesota as well as a Trustee for the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Sciences (USA).

Richard Morgan, PhD

Dr Morgan has over 25 years experience in pharmaceutical R&D. Early in his career he worked with Wellcome (Beckenham, UK) as a Pathologist and Toxicologist. He has held various positions including Head of Toxicology at Wellcome and International Head of Toxicology and Preclinical Outsourcing for GlaxoWellcome. During this period, he was responsible for the Preclinical Safety Evaluation of over 100 NCEs, covering areas as diverse as CNS, Respiratory, Metabolic, Anti-Infectives, Oncology, Monoclonals. His involvement in successful marketed products includes Lamictal (Epilepsy), Zomig (Migraine), Malarone (PCP/Malaria), Atracurium (NMB), Wellbutrin (Anti-depressant/Smoking Cessation) and Exosurf (Infant RDS). After leaving GSK, Richard established his own consultancy company (R&B HealthCare Ltd).

Kim Wright, PhD

Kim has an extensive industry background including 17 years with Bristol Myers Squibb, where he was Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry and 12 years with Schering Plough Corporation, where he was involved in antibacterial and anti-fungal research programs. More recently, he was Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry and Preclinical Development for Chemocentryx, a Californian drug discovery company focused on discovering and developing orally administered medicines that target the chemokine system to treat autoimmune diseases, inflammatory disorders and cancers.

Tracie Ramsdale, PhD

Tracie Ramsdale is one of the founders of Alchemia and has led the company’s development as its General Manager and Chief Executive Officer from 1998 to 2007. Tracie joined the Alchemia Board in July 2003. Tracie originally trained as a synthetic organic chemist, obtaining a Master of Pharmacy from the Victorian College of Pharmacy in 1987 and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Queensland in 1994.

Before establishing Alchemia, Tracie was a Principal Investigator and Commercial Manager of the Centre for Drug Design and Development at the University of Queensland (Institute for Molecular Bioscience) from 1994 to 1998. Prior to this Tracie held research appointments at the Victorian College of Pharmacy and Bond University. She is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

About Alchemia Limited – www.alchemia.com.au

Alchemia is a drug discovery and development Company founded on its chemistry expertise. The Company’s lead program is fondaparinux (synthetic heparin, a generic version of GlaxoSmithKline’s Arixtra®) which will generate near-term revenues and was recently partnered with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Inc. for the US market. Alchemia’s pipeline of assets are built on two platform technologies; HyACT® (targeted cancer drug delivery) and VAST^TM (drug discovery). HyCAMP^TM, for the treatment of colorectal cancer, recently achieved positive Phase II clinical trial results.

Arixtra® is a registered trademark of GlaxoSmithKline. VAST^TM, HyCAMP^TM and HyACT® are trademarks of Alchemia and Alchemia Oncology.

About VAST^TM

VAST^TM is a patented drug discovery platform which provides a new approach to the discovery of small molecule drug leads. VAST^TM enables rapid identification of compounds with the right structural and functional characteristics for a given biological target. It can significantly reduce the time taken to discover and optimize potential new drugs.

Alchemia is applying VAST^TM to the discovery of drugs that target G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Various GPCRs are targeted by approximately one third of all drugs, and therapeutics targeting these proteins have worldwide sales estimated at US$100 billion per year. However, there are many GPCRs that are not drug targets, either because their function is unknown or because promising drug leads have not been identified using traditional drug discovery technologies. VAST^TM is ideally suited for the discovery of new drug leads against this highly important family of targets.