Mimotopes and Baker combine on cardio treatment

A letter of intent to jointly develop a new class of drugs for the treatment of congestive heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases has been signed by combinatorial and medicinal chemistry company Mimotopes and the Baker Medical Research Institute.

"It's a collaboration that has been around for some time now," said Dr Andrew Milner who is managing director of Mimotopes.

Mimotopes, an Australian subsidiary of US-based company MitoKor, works primarily with companies overseas on the drug discovery process, providing services in combinatorial and medicinal chemistry as well as polymer science.

Mimotopes has been providing chemistry services to Assoc Prof David Kaye's team at the Baker Medical Research Institute for a while, Milner said.

"As we started to get nice data, we all started to get more excited," he said.

The preliminary results lead to patents being filed and eventually to the decision to take the next step in developing therapeutic compounds, explained Milner.

Milner said that Mimotopes and the Baker Institute were developing an application for the next round of Biotechnology Innovation Fund grants to help fund further development.

He said that they would like to add as much value as they can to the platform before seeking further assistance in commercialising any products.

Milner explained that the collaboration is a great opportunity for Mimotopes to work with the Australian medical research community.

Kaye noted that the development of new drugs required skills and resources that were not necessarily present in research institutions like the Baker Institute.