LEIDEN, The Netherlands, July 12, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- ZoBio announced today that the leading biopharmaceutical company UCB has selected ZoBio to provide ligand discovery services in the field of Fragment Based Drug Discovery. The agreement provides for initial ligand screening of UCB discovery targets. ZoBio will immobilize the targets and carry out ligand screening using its proprietary Target Immobilized NMR Screening (TINS) technology.
"UCB is always searching for innovative solutions to overcome the challenges in drug discovery," said Mark Bushfield, Vice President, NCE Research. "We feel that TINS is a robust platform that can help generate novel lead series for our targets and give us a competitive advantage."
"ZoBio is proud to be recognized by UCB as a valuable and reliable partner in drug discovery," said Gregg Siegal, Chief Scientific Officer of ZoBio. "TINS has been validated on targets from multiple customers and we are confident that it will provide novel ligands for even the most challenging of UCB's targets."
About ZoBio
ZoBio develops innovative methods using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to screen compound libraries for binding to a broad range of pharmacological targets. Using its TINS technology, ZoBio is capable of rapidly generating high affinity, high specificity lead compounds with optimal drug-like properties. Founded in 2004 as a spinout from Leiden University in the Netherlands, ZoBio has focused on development of its proprietary TINS hardware and methods that allow rapid screening of drug fragment libraries for interaction with a target. TINS allows fragment-based screening of a much broader array of targets than competing technologies. ZoBio concentrates on collaborative drug discovery projects with diverse biotech and pharmaceutical partners. More information about ZoBio can be found at www.zobio.com.
About UCB
Headquartered in Brussels (Belgium), UCB (www.ucb-group.com) is a leading global biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the research, development and commercialization of innovative pharmaceutical and biotechnology products in the fields of central nervous system disorders, allergy/respiratory diseases, immune and inflammatory disorders and oncology. UCB focuses on securing a leading position in severe disease categories. Employing more than 8,400 people in over 40 countries, UCB achieved revenue of 2.5 billion euro in 2006. UCB is listed on the Euronext Brussels Exchange and owns 87.6% of Schwarz Pharma.