KINAXO Biotechnologies GmbH and Daiichi Sankyo Company Limited entered a long-term partnership in cancer research. Under the agreement, Daiichi Sankyo will employ KINAXO's technology platform to support the development of Daiichi Sankyo's targeted cancer drugs. This will involve KINAXO applying its proprietary chemical proteomics technologies Cellular Target Profiling^® and KinAffinity^® as well as its phosphoproteomics technology PhosphoScout^® within various research programs pursued at Daiichi Sankyo. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Cellular Target Profiling^® and KinAffinity^® use a combination of proprietary chemical proteomics and quantitative mass spectrometry technologies to identify a small molecule's native cellular targets from biological samples.

PhosphoScout^® is a global, quantitative phosphoproteomics service tailored to dissect cellular signal transduction pathways and their response to drug treatment. PhosphoScout^® is applicable to both small molecules and antibodies.

Axel Ullrich, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried and KINAXO Board member commented: "To promote innovation in cancer therapy we need to better understand how targeted drugs interfere with de-regulated signaling in human malignancies. To this end, KINAXO has established a unique technology platform that allows comprehensive analysis of cancer signal transduction processes and their response to drug treatment. I am convinced that these innovative technologies will significantly contribute to the development of tomorrow's cancer therapeutics."

Andreas Jenne, KINAXO's CEO added: "We are excited and pleased to partner with Daiichi Sankyo to support their endeavour in developing novel medicines for cancer patients." 

About KINAXO - www.kinaxo.com
KINAXO Biotechnologies is a privately-held biotechnology company based in Munich/Martinsried, Germany. KINAXO's technology platform offers solutions for drug mode-of-action analysis, cellular target profiling, target deconvolution, drug repositioning and biomarker discovery. KINAXO maintains several collaborations with global pharmaceutical companies, such as Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, Roche and Boehringer Ingelheim. Japanese clients include Takeda and Eisai. For more information, please visit www.kinaxo.com.

About Daiichi Sankyo - http://www.daiichisankyo.com/
The Daiichi Sankyo Group is dedicated to the creation and supply of innovative pharmaceutical products to address the diversified, unmet medical needs of patients in both mature and emerging markets. While maintaining its portfolio of marketed pharmaceuticals for hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and bacterial infections, the Group is engaged in the development of treatments for thrombotic disorders and focused on the discovery of novel oncology and cardiovascularmetabolic therapies. Furthermore, the Daiichi Sankyo Group has created a "Hybrid Business Model," which will respond to market and customer diversity and optimize growth opportunities across the value chain. For more information, please visit http://www.daiichisankyo.com/.