Ambit Biosciences Announces Compound Profiling Collaboration with Pfizer
San Diego, CA - January 17, 2005 - Ambit Biosciences today announced that it has entered into an expanded compound profiling collaboration with Pfizer's La Jolla laboratories. Under the collaboration, Ambit will employ its proprietary "Reverse Screening" technology to identify and characterize the protein targets of certain Pfizer drug discovery compounds and thereby elucidate their molecular mechanism of action.
"Our proprietary 'Reverse Screening' technology enables us to determine mechanism of action by screening small molecules across a large fraction of all human proteins. Knowing mechanism of action can improve and accelerate the process of advancing drug candidates into clinical development," explained Scott Salka, CEO of Ambit. "Ambit has utilized this technology internally to develop our small molecule neuroprotectants for the treatment of stroke and other CNS disorders, and we look forward to utilizing it externally as well through this collaboration with Pfizer. Having Pfizer located here in San Diego is great for the local biotech community and has certainly aided us in developing relationships with Pfizer scientists."
"The earnings generated from our partnerships, including our existing multi-year collaboration with Roche, will support the continued development of Ambit's pipeline of drug candidates for the treatment of stroke and various cancers, the first of which we plan to advance into clinical trials during 2005," Salka added.
About Ambit Biosciences
Ambit Biosciences is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company developing small molecule neuroprotectants for the treatment of stroke and other CNS disorders and kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancers. Ambit plans to initiate clinical trials for stroke in 2005 and oncology in early 2006. Ambit's proprietary technology, which has been validated through collaborations with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Roche, provides an unprecedented ability to identify, characterize, and quantify protein-small molecule interactions. Ambit has raised a total of nearly $51 million from investors including Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund, Forward Ventures, Roche, Avalon Ventures, and GIMV NV.