HAMBURG, Germany - Evotec BioSystems AG and Trega Biosciences Inc. joined forces in a strategic research collaboration to develop novel, high-throughput assays for use in drug discovery and preclinical lead optimization.

In addition, the companies signed a licensing agreement regarding Trega's IDEA predictive bioinformatics tool. To further enhance its screening capability in drug discovery, Evotec purchased a certain amount of Trega's Chem.Folio substance libraries.

Both companies are active in the field of screening and assay development, Evotec as an expert in ultra-high-throughput screening technology, miniaturized assay development and detection technology, Trega with extensive capabilities in the field of certain screening and assay development and interpretation tools.

Trega, of San Diego, has developed assays capable of determining absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) of drug candidates. "ADME assays make use of intact cell layers to test substances for these parameters," Anne Hennecke, spokeswoman of Hamburg-based Evotec, told BioWorld International. "Formerly, lead structures identified by screening had to be tested in animal studies. Today, the objective is to learn as much as possible about a substance from test tube studies to identify candidates for success or failure before performing animal or human studies."

Trega has several years of experience regarding the choice and use of cell layers for such studies and has begun to develop a simulation software. In the cooperation, Evotec will add its own know-how in miniaturization, assay development and detection, so that miniaturized ADME tests for the 96-well-format can be developed.

"This will cut costs considerably as today the ADME tests are time consuming and need large amounts of reagents," said Timm Jessen, chief scientific and operating officer of Evotec. "Miniaturized cellular ADME assays in high-throughput mode represent a major breakthrough in early drug discovery." He said the ADME assays resulting from this collaboration would be used by both companies to enhance their respective research efforts.

Under the terms of the agreement Evotec will have an exclusive license to all developed assays and has obtained exclusive marketing rights for the ADME assays. Trega will own data generated on a selected set of compounds and will receive royalties on drug discovery collaboration revenues of assays offered to third parties by Evotec.

In addition, Evotec will receive a license to Trega's proprietary IDEA predictive model. IDEA is a simulation software that can quantitatively predict the potential in vivo activity of lead structures. "Trega has constantly improved the software using the results from ADME assays in which compounds from Trega's substance libraries were tested," Hennecke said. "In addition, Trega has added the in vivo activities from substances that failed in clinical studies because of side effects, etc. These data help to improve the identification and optimization of lead structures in regard to ADME criteria."

Evotec and Trega will screen compounds from Trega's proprietary Chem.Folio library through the new jointly developed assays, and the data will be used to further enhance the IDEA predictive models.

Also, Evotec will purchase certain amounts of the compounds contained in Trega's Chem.Folio inventory as well as compounds produced through the end of 2000. The compounds purchased also will include the associated information, such as synthetic protocols, cytotoxicity and physico-chemical data demonstrating the suitability of the compounds for screening.

"After the purchase, Evotec now has around 300,000 compounds in its own library, and we hope to expand it to 500,000 to 700,000 by the end of this year," Hennecke said. Under the terms of the agreement, Evotec will use the compounds in its internal drug discovery programs and is allowed to make them accessible to its screening customers on a fee-per-compound basis.

Financial details of the alliance were not disclosed. However, Hennecke said each partner would finance its own costs for ADME development. The IDEA license is free, but Evotec will pay a small amount of license fees on service sales reached with assays developed jointly.

"The output of this collaboration will significantly accelerate the development of IDEA, and increase the value of Trega's Chem.Folio libraries to its customers," Michael Grey, president and CEO of Trega, said.