MerLion will screen its natural compound collection against high throughput screens developed by scientists at CRT in order to isolate new therapeutic compounds against validated cancer targets
MerLion Pharmaceuticals, a Singapore-based drug discovery company utilising the world's largest and most diverse natural product collection, and Cancer Research Technology (CRT), a specialist in oncology drug discovery and commercialisation, a company owned by Cancer Research UK, have entered into a large-scale screening programme to identify new anti-cancer drug candidates derived from natural product chemistry.
"MerLion is very pleased to be working with CRT and the excellent researchers whom they represent" said Tony Buss, CEO of MerLion.
"Cancer research in the UK has a deservedly high profile and this collaboration opens up opportunities to find novel drugs for the new generation of cancer targets being discovered there." Clive Stanway, director of technology development at CRT, commented: "MerLion is a world leader in provision of natural product based drug discovery and therefore CRT is delighted to announce this collaboration".
Within the collaboration MerLion will screen its natural compound collection against high throughput screens developed by scientists at CRT in order to isolate new therapeutic compounds against validated cancer targets.
Targets will be selected from research carried out by Cancer Research UK and CRT's other prestigious academic partners.
Following the identification of lead compounds, it is anticipated that the expertise in medicinal chemistry both at MerLion and CRT will be utilised to perform compound optimisation.
The companies will work in close partnership throughout the target selection and screening process.
The results of the collaboration will be jointly owned.
This international partnership follows the joint statement on science, engineering and technology signed by Prime Ministers Lee Hsien Loong and Tony Blair on 4 July 2005, building on the UK-Singapore Partners in Science initiative.
Welcoming the collaboration, Ian Pearson MP, UK minister of state for trade who is visiting Singapore said: "I am delighted that CRT and MerLion Pharma have entered into this collaboration.
"This is the type of collaboration that was envisaged by our prime ministers in July when they signed their joint statement on science.
"My visit has convinced me that there are many more opportunities for a wide range of UK and Singaporean based businesses and researchers to work together."
