Granada, Spain, June 11, 2012 / B3C newswire / –Fundación MEDINA (Fundación Centro de Excelencia en Investigación de Medicamentos Innovadores en Andalucía), a research organization focused on discovery of novel drugs and bioactive molecules from natural products, announced today a contract research collaboration with Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Lexington, MA, USA, to discover novel antibiotics from Cubist’s and MEDINA’s proprietary and unique natural product libraries.
Fundación MEDINA makes available for screening one of the world’s most productive collections of microorganisms for discovery of secondary metabolites. MEDINA is a recognized expert in the field of drug discovery and has collective experience with and historical ties to some of the most important natural products discoveries of recent decades. Based upon its record of identifying drug-like compounds from microorganisms, MEDINA offers a unique platform for natural products discovery and opportunities to identify novel scaffolds unknown in synthetic libraries to respond to unmet clinical needs.
«This relationship represents a strategic collaboration to identify novel drugs in the area of infectious diseases from the exploitation of the unique natural products resources from Fundación MEDINA» said Dr Olga Genilloud, Fundación MEDINA Scientific Director. «MEDINA provides the expertise and tools for maximising the probability of success in the collaboration with Cubist and the discovery of promising compounds for the treatment of serious multidrug resistant infections».
«We are pleased to be able to partner with Fundación MEDINA as we continue to seek new drug candidates that have been generated from secondary metabolites and from compounds that come from natural products,» said Ronald Farquhar, Cubist’s Senior Vice President of Discovery and Pharmaceutical Sciences. «Having access to Fundación MEDINA’s resources will greatly aid in our work to find new acute-care medicines to satisfy current unmet medical needs.»
The alliance will be focused on complementing Cubist’s drug discovery programs with new lead compounds in the development of new anti-bacterial drugs.
About Fundación MEDINA
Fundación MEDINA is a non-profit research organisation established in Granada, Spain, from the private-public partnership between the Government of Andalucía, the University of Granada and Merck Sharp and Dohme de España S.A. Fundación MEDINA owns one of the largest and most chemically diverse microbial Natural Products Libraries of extracts with a long track success record in delivering novel drug candidates in the pharmaceutical sector. Fundación MEDINA has a unique expertise in natural products microbiology, chemistry and high throughput screening, and is developing drug discovery programs in infectious diseases (including tuberculosis and parasitic diseases), oncology, and rare diseases. Fundación MEDINA is establishing contract research collaborations and partnerships with pharma and biotech companies to discover novel therapeutics.
Contact:
Olga Genilloud, PhD
Fundación MEDINA
Avda del Conocimiento 3
Parque Tecnológico Ciencias de la Salud
18100 Armilla, Granada, SPAIN
Phone +34 958 993 965
Fax +34 958 846 710
