Cyclica & Dalton Announce Drug Development Collaboration

Cyclica and Dalton recently announced a collaboration agreement to identify and develop new drug candidates applying advanced computational molecular design to medicinal chemistry and drug development approaches.

The collaboration will utilize Cyclica’s in silico drug design and optimization services as well as provide access to the company’s extensive databases to be applied to a number of lead molecules previously developed by Dalton Medicinal Chemistry, as well as a host of additional compounds. Dalton Pharma Services will synthesize and manufacture quantities of selected drug candidates in its licensed facilities, for analysis and consideration by a leading global pharmaceutical company’s candidate screening program. The assets developed through this agreement will be equally owned by the parties.

Combining the platform technology developed by the Cyclica team with the medicinal chemistry and synthesis capabilities of Dalton, the collaboration is expected to provide a reliable and cost-effective source of promising drug candidates for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The work integrates Cyclica’s Ligand Explorer and Intelligent Molecular Redesign design tools, with Dalton’s extensive expertise in drug discovery, development, and manufacturing.

“It is exciting to see Cyclica’s advanced computational approach to molecule design paired with decades of medicinal chemistry and manufacturing experience from Dalton. This combination could significantly improve the way new drugs are developed,” said Jason Mitakidis, President and CEO of Cyclica.

“We believe Cyclica’s expertise and innovations in design are world class,” added Dr. Judd Berman, Co-Founder of Dalton Medicinal Chemistry. “We look forward to working together as a team to accelerate the discovery of new medicines.”

Cyclica Inc. is a big data technology company developing indexed biological databases and software for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The company’s core technology is an innovative and proprietary data integration and drug testing platform – The Ligand Explorer Computing Environment – that helps address the rising cost of R&D in drug discovery and low regulatory approval rates of pre-market pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products. Combined with a cloud computing approach, the powerful LigEx technology is aimed at reducing failure risk in drug discovery by anticipating side effects prior to clinical trials and helping design safer, more efficacious drugs, enabling more informed R&D investment decisions. The technology further generates data researchers can use to overcome expensive project hurdles with data-guided Intelligent Molecular Redesign.

Since incorporation, Cyclica has begun establishing key industry partnerships and academic collaborations, developed a unique intellectual property portfolio and has become a client company at the MaRS Discovery District, Canada’s largest life sciences incubator. For more information, visit: www.cyclicarx.com.

Dalton Chemical Laboratories Inc. o/a Dalton Pharma Services is a Health Canada approved contract pharmaceutical manufacturer that supplies chemistry, analytical, and formulation development services to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries in the areas of chemistry, medicinal chemistry and fine chemical manufacture. Dalton provides cGMP manufacturing of solid dosage forms and aseptic filling services to its customers at any stage of the regulatory process (Phase I, II, III or commercial). In its modern cGMP facilities, Dalton produces active pharmaceutical ingredients at the gram or kilogram scale. Dalton conducts aseptic fills to produce batches of finished drug product in vials or syringes, either aseptically filled or terminally sterilized, under fully validated conditions. In addition, Dalton’s analytical chemistry laboratory offers method development, validation and ICH stability programs to its clients. For more information, please visit www.dalton.com.

Dalton Medicinal Chemistry Inc. (DMC) was established to offer select partners medicinal chemistry capabilities in design and synthesis of new chemical entities. DMC focuses on quality, creativity, and speed in the delivery of innovative, high-quality medicinal chemistry capabilities for the identification of new chemical entities that advance our clients’ drug discovery programs.