KINAXO Biotechnologies GmbH announced today that it has entered a second collaboration with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited Osaka, Japan. Under the agreement KINAXO will apply its quantitative phosphoproteomics technology PhosphoScout ^® to assist in research of drugs under development at Takeda. This will allow Takeda to take early educated decisions on drug efficacy and safety. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

PhosphoScout^® enables quantitative analysis of cellular phosphoproteomes on a global scale. Since signal transmission in eukaryotic cells is mainly regulated by reversible protein phosphorylation, comprehensive analysis of phosphoproteome modulation in response to drug treatment provide valuable insights into a drug's mode of action. Furthermore, PhosphoScout^® can identify differentially regulated phosphorylation sites in vivo that may serve as pharmacodynamic or drug response biomarkers in clinical trials.

PhosphoScout^® utilizes state-of-the-art mass spectrometry methods enabling unbiased quantification of approx. 15,000 phosphorylation sites in a single experiment. Proprietary bioinformatic software tools are applied to visualize the drug's effects on cellular signal transduction pathway and help identify phospho-protein biomarkers.

Dr. Andreas Jenne, KINAXO's CEO said: "We are very pleased to continue our collaboration with Takeda, a world leading healthcare company, and look forward to supporting Takeda's efforts in developing drugs. This collaboration once again demonstrates the power of our PhosphoScout^® platform in drug discovery and development."

About KINAXO - http://www.kinaxo.com/
KINAXO Biotechnologies GmbH, based in Munich/Martinsried, supports pharma companies in developing targeted drugs. Our service offering includes drug mode-of-action analysis, cellular target profiling, target deconvolution, and biomarker discovery.

On February 9, 2011 Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, TecDAX) announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire all shares in KINAXO Biotechnologies GmbH. Within Evotec KINAXO will become a centre of excellence for mass spectrometry based chemical proteomics and phosphoproteomics technologies. The acquisition confirms Evotec's leading position as fully integrated drug discovery and early development partner for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.