Venomtech announces new drug development collaboration with Charles River

Venomtech announces new drug development collaboration with Charles River

Venomtech is collaborating with Charles River Laboratories, International Inc. to help drug developers explore venom-derived compounds for a wide range of therapeutic targets. This newly formed collaboration will bring together Venomtech’s biology expertise and vast venom-derived peptide library, with Charles River’s drug development and screening knowhow, providing pharmaceutical manufacturers with a one-stop service to explore this unique natural resource.

Millions of years of evolution have made venom-derived peptides highly specific, even for many of the hardest-to-hit drug targets. Venomtech’s Targeted-Venom Discovery Array™ (T-VDA™) libraries provide researchers with a straightforward solution to rapidly screen thousands of individual venom fragments, with each array specifically designed to maximise hits for a specific target. Through the new collaboration, Charles River will be able to use this innovative resource – closely supported by Venomtech – to accelerate its clients’ pipelines, addressing difficult therapeutic targets, uncovering new mechanisms of action and minimising off-target effects.

Paul Grant, CEO at Venomtech, explained: “Venomtech has been at the forefront of venom research for drug discovery for more than a decade. Through this relationship with Charles River Laboratories – a global leader for drug discovery contract research – we can now showcase our innovative technology, introducing the wider industry to the potential of venoms for the successful delivery of more leads, more quickly, for a broad range of targets.”

Vad Lazari, Director of Biology at Charles River, added: “In collaboration with Venomtech, we can now offer our clients access to bespoke venom libraries, potentially accelerating their discovery pipelines using this powerful natural resource. This arrangement will enable us to draw on Venomtech’s specialist biological knowledge to quickly follow up hits and promising leads, helping our clients to overcome longstanding specificity challenges and exploit novel modes of action.”