WATERTOWN, Mass. & CHENGDU, China--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FORMA Therapeutics and HitGen Ltd. today announced a multiyear research collaboration and license agreement to build and screen proprietary DNA-encoded libraries (DELs). Through this collaborative alliance, scientists from both organizations will contribute innovative library design and screening approaches to identify novel leads against a selected number of FORMA’s therapeutic targets. FORMA will fund the discovery research at HitGen and maintain a world-wide exclusive license for further research and development of any compounds discovered through the collaboration.
“FORMA’s collaborative networks have unlocked pre-competitive insights into therapeutic targets for oncology, neurodegeneration and serious inflammatory disorders. Marrying our proprietary building blocks and novel library design with the scale and platform capabilities of HitGen represents a powerful combination,” said Steven Tregay, Ph.D., CEO and Founder of FORMA Therapeutics. “This alliance will enable both the acceleration from lead selection to clinical candidate nomination, as well as complement our pipeline-in-a-target portfolio whereby we profile multiple scaffolds per target for utility across a multitude of therapeutic areas.”
“We are delighted to announce this major collaboration with FORMA, a highly innovative clinical-stage biotechnology company with a world-class collaborative network, proprietary chemistry and innovative business model,” said Dr. Jin Li, Chairman of the Board and CEO of HitGen. “Our partnership with FORMA is a confirmation of HitGen’s platform expertise and uniquely structured business partnerships tailored to meet the needs of our collaborators. We look forward to identifying lead compounds for multiple target families with FORMA.”
Jonathan C. O'Connell, Executive Director of Early Discovery at FORMA Therapeutics and Chair of the FORMA-HitGen Joint Steering Committee added, “We believe that the synergy of FORMA’s highly successful early discovery engine, combined with the scale and insight of HitGen’s DEL platform, uniquely positions FORMA to deliver novel leads for challenging biological targets to address unmet medical need.”
About FORMA
FORMA Therapeutics' scientists are passionate about discovering and developing medicines that will make a difference in oncology, inflammation & immunity, neurodegeneration, and other serious diseases. The Company’s fully integrated R&D team drives discovery and early clinical development of therapeutics for qualified targets in the areas of epigenetics, protein homeostasis, and metabolism. Leveraging a world class network of academic investigators, clinical experts and partners, FORMA combines deep biology insight, chemistry expertise and early clinical development capabilities, to create drug candidates providing profound patient benefit.
FORMA is headquartered in Watertown, MA near the epicenter of the Cambridge Life Sciences cluster, with operations in Watertown, MA and Branford, CT. www.formatherapeutics.com
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About HitGen Ltd.
HitGen is an innovation driven life science company with headquarters and main research facilities based in Chengdu, China and with laboratories in Houston, Texas. HitGen has established a unique platform for drug discovery research. Our DNA encoded chemical libraries (DELs) contain more than 200 billion novel, diverse, drug-like compounds. These compounds are members of DELs synthesized from many hundreds of distinct chemical scaffolds, designed with tractable chemistry based on proven results for identifying drug leads against targets from both known and novel protein classes. HitGen is collaborating with multiple pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and academic research institutes to discover and develop the therapeutics of the future. www.hitgen.com
