Bayer Schering collaborates with Ligon to apply SMM technology for first-in-class drug discovery

Ligon Discovery, the innovator of Small Molecule Microarray technology, today announced that it has partnered with Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Germany, to apply its proprietary Small Molecule Microarray screening platform (SMM) to discover potential first-in-class drug candidates for new disease targets.

Ligon’s SMM technology offers a completely differentiated approach to the identification of valid drug leads for historically intractable disease targets, potentially overcoming a critical obstacle in drug discovery. The advantages of the SMM screening format come from inverting conventional target-based screening methods - affixing the drug candidates to a slide allows using cell lysates rather than developing a complex assay based on a full understanding of a protein target’s functions. This fundamental switch in assay setup enables, for the first time, the possibility of screening every protein in an entire target class or every protein in a disease pathway.

“Ligon is excited to collaborate with a leading global pharmaceutical company to discover drugs for important diseases that have previously proven difficult to address. Our partnership with Bayer Schering Pharma provides the opportunity to demonstrate the unique capabilities of SMM, particularly to screen challenging targets and identify unique starting points for drug development,” commented Christian Bailey, Chief Executive Officer of Ligon Discovery.

Ligon’s intellectual property estate encompasses the chemistry and methods that enable the attachment of all chemical collections whether synthetic, natural, bioactive, or diversity-oriented. This allows Ligon to screen with any existing drug library, comprised of compounds that are more drug-like and amenable to development rather than compounds biased by requirements of other screening approaches. Because hits from SMM are based on existing compound libraries, they may require less downstream optimization in the form of medicinal chemistry and may progress more rapidly to clinical success.

“SMM screening has led to the discovery of many validated inhibitors against diverse drug targets including protein kinases, histone deacetylases, extracellular growth factors, and transcription factors,” said Errol DeSouza, PhD, Executive Chairman of Ligon Discovery and former Head of US R&D for Aventis. “We therefore believe that SMM is an extremely promising and powerful tool in the effort to address historically intractable targets.”