Queen’s University Belfast Signs Collaboration and Licensing Agreement with Ipsen

A collaboration and licensing agreement has been entered into by Professors Daniel Longley, Tim Harrison, and colleagues, from the Queen’s University Belfast, and biopharmaceutical company, Ipsen, for the research, development, manufacture, and commercialization of FLIP inhibitors.

The agreement will provide an exclusive license to progress the FLIP inhibitor project, which has been supported by Domainex from its inception. Domainex performed a LeadBuilder virtual screen at the beginning of the project that generated the initial hit matter. Afterwards, the company has been involved with helping the Queen’s University Belfast team with integrated medicinal chemistry services and further advance the research into the role of FLIP inhibitors in cancer. Furthermore, Domainex provided support to the university for its Wellcome Trust Seeding Drug Discovery Award.

“The Domainex drug discovery team is proud to have delivered a series of FLIP inhibitors for the Queen’s team, and we hope that these lead to first-in-class drugs that will improve the lives of patients with cancer,” said Ray Boffey, executive director of Medicines Research at Domainex, in a Jan. 26, 2022 press release.

“We are very pleased that our successful collaboration with Queen’s and the Wellcome Trust has generated a set of FLIP inhibitors to warrant further investigation by Ipsen,” added Tom Mander, CEO of Domainex, in the press release. “It is further testament of the power of our integrated drug discovery engine to deliver potential breakthrough new medicines to treat debilitating diseases and demonstrates the value that our team brings to our partners.”

“It has been an absolute pleasure working with Dr. Boffey and the Domainex team on this project,” commented Longley, deputy director of the Patrick G. Johnston Centre for Cancer Research at Queen’s University Belfast, in the press release. “Without their first-class medicinal chemistry expertise and the use of their Leadbuilder virtual screening platform at the outset of the program, we would not have been able to secure the support of The Wellcome Trust and advance the programme to the stage it has now reached.”

Source: Domainex