MARTINSRIED, Germany and NAGOYA, Japan, February 15/PRNewswire/ -- 4SC AG (4SC), a German drug discovery and development company and Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho Co., Ltd., (SKK), an established, international pharmaceutical company headquartered in Nagoya, Japan today announced that they have entered into a multi-year drug discovery collaboration.

4SC will apply its integrated drug discovery platform to develop drug candidates, ready to enter clinical trials, against two specific targets provided by SKK. Using the proprietary virtual High Throughput Screening technology, 4SCan(r), 4SC will identify new, active small molecules, which will then be tested in corresponding biological screening experiments against both targets. A dedicated team of 4SC scientists will further optimise hits and leads with respect to certain properties like potency, selectivity and their in vitro ADMET profile. SKK will be responsible for clinical development and commercialisation.

Under the terms of the agreement 4SC will receive research funding over a period of several years and be eligible for success-based research milestone payments. In addition, terms include potential payments to 4SC upon achievement of defined clinical milestones and royalties if resulting products are marketed.

"We are very proud that in collaborating with SKK this is the first time a major Japanese pharmaceutical company has decided to choose 4SC as a partner in drug discovery," stated Dr Ulrich Dauer, CEO of 4SC. "Entering the Japanese market is a very important step for our company growth."

Mr. Satoshi Terao, SKK's Vice President for Research and Development commented: "It's our great pleasure to be able to work with 4SC in this important multi-year drug discovery collaboration. We believe that this collaboration with 4SC and their innovative technology will enrich our development pipelines in our focused area and finally lead us to a successful development and registration."

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