 |
Belgian biotech to further commercialize its computational fragment based drug design platform as well as its MDM2 and PTP-1B drug development programs.
Diepenbeek, Belgium - 3 July 2009 - Today Silicos' CEO, Dr. Wilfried Langenaeker announced the appointment of Dr. Jack Elands as the company's chief business officer. The company, founded in 2005, initially focused on developing its computational fragment based drug design platforms. Since then Silicos has had several successful collaborations with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Langenaeker commented: "Now our technology platforms have been validated in collaboration with several partners we feel the time is right to expand our commercial horizon. In addition, we have started several internal drug development programs for which we are looking for partners to continue further development."
Silicos is focusing on generating novel chemical structures for drug targets. The company claims it can generate novel structures and do that substantially faster and has proven so in its MDM2 program where no less than 9 different classes of chemical structures were identified, several of which patentable.
Dr. Elands mentioned that "computational drug design methods have reached a stage where they can contribute significantly to the drug development process. The speed with which Silicos can generate novel chemistry is impressive and will help to jump start programs and thereby also provide cost savings. In addition, the patent gap analysis for which Silicos uses its chemical structure characterization, comparison and classification tools is by itself already a very valuable offering."
Dr. Elands, a neuropharmacologist by training, has a background in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. He started his industrial career as a research scientist at Marion Merrell Dow (now Sanofi Aventis) and has since been in several business development roles, most recently at Sidec AB.
Silicos NV is a privately held biotechnology company with offices at the Research Park of the University of Hasselt in Belgium. Its principal investors are the Limburg Investment Company - LRM, Allegro Investment Fund, Gemma Frisius Fund II, Flemish Innovation Fund and Software Holding and Finance.
More info:
For more information about this press release, please contact:
Jack Elands
Chief Business Officer
jack.elands@silicos.com
+32 (0) 472 551-366
peop
|
