Selcia completes drug discovery project with ExonHit Therapeutics using fragment screening technology

Selcia Ltd today announced the successful completion of a drug discovery project with ExonHit Therapeutics SA (Paris, France), using Selcia's fragment screening technology. Novel and weak affinity hits were identified from Selcia's Fragment Library, using their proprietary CEfrag™ technique. ExonHit Therapeutics are now advancing the viable hits for optimisation.

Managing Director of Selcia, Dr Hans Fliri, commented,"This further validates CEfrag's ability to identify fragments as viable hits at the outset of a drug discovery project against difficult biological targets. Selcia's CEfrag™ technology uses capillary electrophoresis to detect weak binding interactions between a fragment and target protein. We believe CEfrag™, combined with Selcia's Fragment Library with high QC criteria, represents a powerful new platform for the identification of new chemical starting points for lead development".

Dr Eric Beausoleil, Director Medicinal Chemistry at ExonHit Therapeutics said, "Selcia's scientists were able to successfully identify novel, weak affinity hits from Selcia's fragment library using their CEfrag™ screening technology. This impressive visual technique allowed the selective detection of direct binding interactions to different forms of our target protein. The new fragment hits were confirmed in our secondary assays, and are now undergoing further evaluation. We look forward to working with Selcia in the future as ExonHit Therapeutics continues its quest for innovative medicines".