Biotech Values

[Titan V]

Chinese upstart DL Medicine forges alliance with Pfizer

http://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/chinese-upstart-dl-medicine-forges-alliance-pfizer

Chinese biotech NetVation DL Medicine has arrived on the scene with a two-year alliance with Pfizer, plus an equity investment from the big pharma group.

There’s not a lot of information around about DL Medicine, which emerges with backing from HitGen Pharma and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Anlong venture fund. The discovery-stage biotech says it will “screen and collaborate with Pfizer in producing new chemical entities against pre-selected targets from multiple therapeutic areas.”

DL Medicine will tap into HitGen’s DNA-encoded library (DEL) in the collaboration, a technology platform that has already attracted Pfizer as a collaborator along with Merck & Co., Johnson & Johnson, Aduro Biotech and others.

HitGen uses DNA sequences to generate extensive compound libraries, which can then be screened against targets. Once compounds with strong binding to a target are found, the structure of the “hits” can be deciphered using high-throughput DNA sequencing and the compounds optimized for further development. It’s a hugely productive process, and HitGen says it has built DELs with more than 85 billion compounds.