Phylogica and PharmAust sign partnering deal

Phylogica (ASX:PYC) and PharmAust (ASX:PAA) subsidiary Mimotopes have signed a collaborative partnership deal to develop peptide drugs.

Phylogica's novel classification system identifies biologically active peptides it calls Phylomers, which bind to target proteins and inactivate them.

Mimotopes owns a platform called Synphase, which uses an extruded polymer lantern and can rapidly produce and optimise large libraries of these Phylomer libraries.

"Phylogica will give us the recipe, if you like, for the peptides," said Mimotopes managing director Paul D'Sylva. "We'll make them, then we'll jointly screen them and then optimise them back here according to the screening results. Then it goes out of our hands and into the clinical research organisations."

The agreement between the two companies will create a framework within which to interact. Members have been nominated for a joint venture steering committee which will put together specific project agreements around the key diseases of interest, said D'Sylva.

The first project will probably be for stroke candidates, he said. "That's one area where Phylogica had some success with their structural library," said D'Sylva.

The two companies will share the intellectual property from their collaboration, with the specific percentage being determined on a project by project basis. "It will just depend upon the relative contribution that each group makes," said D'Sylva.

The peptide therapeutic market is currently estimated at US$1 billion.

"Peptides, as drug candidates, are making a bit of a renaissance at the moment because of the better delivery systems and better synthesis technology," said D'Sylva.