Presidio Pharmaceuticals And Numerate Announce Research Collaboration To Identify Improved Hepatitis C Therapeutics

Main Category: Liver Disease / Hepatitis
Article Date: 13 Feb 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Presidio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing novel, small molecule compounds for the treatment of HIV-1 and HCV and Numerate, Inc., a biotechnology company with a proprietary drug engineering platform, announced today that they have entered into a research collaboration to discover and develop novel small molecule inhibitors of hepatitis C virus (HCV). Terms of the collaboration and the specific HCV target were not disclosed.

"I am very pleased to have entered into this agreement," stated Dr. Richard Colonno, Chief Scientific Officer of Presidio Pharmaceuticals. "Numerate has a very promising computational approach that we believe will help expand our HCV portfolio in a highly competitive area encumbered by many patents. Numerate's drug engineering process addresses the key design criteria in parallel with a focus on delivering advanced lead compounds quickly. The process accelerates the discovery and design of novel leads and reduces the time and cost needed to advance compounds into clinical trials."

"We look forward to working with Presidio to deliver proprietary, potent, and selective small molecule leads, enabling them to rapidly identify clinical development candidates," stated Guido Lanza, Chief Executive Officer of Numerate. "We anticipate a true synergistic working relationship with Presidio, working directly with their scientific team to provide lead and backup molecules for the HCV collaboration."

About Presidio Pharmaceuticals

Presidio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on discovering, in-licensing, developing and commercializing novel therapeutics for viral infections, including HIV-1 and HCV. Presidio has raised over $27 million in financing from Panorama Capital (formerly JP Morgan Partners), Baker Brothers Investments, Bay City Capital, Ventures West, Nexus Medical Partners, and Sagamore Bioventures. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.presidiopharma.com.

About Numerate

Numerate is a privately held biotechnology company that has developed and extensively validated a drug engineering platform that rapidly and cost-effectively delivers small molecule therapeutics optimized for efficacy, safety, and patentability. Numerate applies this technology to design and develop small molecule drugs in collaboration with a variety of partners and in the advancement of proprietary therapeutic programs including a multi-targeted therapy for type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

http://www.numerate.com

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