Press Release

Dortmund, Westphalia ( connect2business.co.uk ) April 17, 2014 - The Lead Discovery Center GmbH (LDC), a renowned translational research organization, and Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. (hereafter, Daiichi Sankyo), Japan, have teamed up to discover new medicines for the treatment of disease with high unmet medical needs. The partners will focus on targeted disease areas and novel mechanisms of strategic interest to Daiichi Sankyo, including oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

Through an initial two-year period of collaboration, LDC will identify promising novel targets from its pan-European network of leading universities and research organizations including members of the Max Planck Society. Individual projects selected by Daiichi Sankyo will be screened by LDC using its own collection of some 200,000 high-quality compounds plus an additional 70,000 compounds contributed from Daiichi Sankyo's corporate Pharma Space Library to generate innovative starting points for joint drug discovery projects. In addition, LDC will be responsible for assay development and hit validation. Daiichi Sankyo will contribute by research funding as well as in-kind support e.g. through its library.

For each collaboration project, Daiichi Sankyo will have a preferred option to enter into a follow-up drug discovery collaboration with LDC for taking promising compounds jointly forward up to the stage of a pharmaceutical lead.

"Daiichi Sankyo is a recognized leader in the development and supply of innovative pharmaceutical products, and we are very pleased to have them on board as our first partner from Japan," said Dr Bert Klebl, Managing Director of LDC. "We very much appreciate their willingness to get involved in projects at a very early stage. With our combined expertise and resources we are perfectly positioned to accelerate the discovery of drug candidates based on exciting novel targets from our academic network and transform them into new medicines for diseases with high unmet medical needs."

About LDC

The Lead Discovery Center (LDC) was established in 2008 by the technology transfer organization Max Planck Innovation, as a novel approach to capitalize on the potential of excellent basic research for the discovery of new therapies for diseases with high medical need.

LDC takes on promising early-stage projects from academia and transforms them into innovative pharmaceutical leads that reach initial proof-of-concept in animals. In close collaboration with high profile partners from academia and industry, LDC is building a strong and growing portfolio of small molecule leads with exceptional medical and commercial potential. LDC sustains a preferred partnership with the Max Planck Society and has formed alliances with AstraZeneca, Bayer, Merck Serono and Daiichi Sankyo as well as leading academic drug discovery centers around the globe.

Further information at: www.lead-discovery.de

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The Lead Discovery Center (LDC) was established in 2008 by the technology transfer organization Max Planck Innovation, as a novel approach to capitalize on the potential of excellent basic research for the discovery of new therapies for diseases with high medical need.

Organisation Profile:
The Lead Discovery Center (LDC) was established in 2008 by the technology transfer organization Max Planck Innovation, as a novel approach to capitalize on the potential of excellent basic research for the discovery of new therapies for diseases with high medical need.