PhoreMost, the UK-based biopharmaceutical company dedicated to drugging ‘undruggable’ disease targets, today announced it has entered into a collaboration with o2h discovery (o2h), an Anglo-Indian medicinal chemistry company that has in-house capability to take drug discovery programmes to the IND filing stage.

PhoreMost has built a pipeline of novel targets and early drug discovery programmes using its next-generation “SITESEEKER®” phenotypic screening platform. The collaboration will see o2h deploy its expertise in medicinal chemistry to help progress PhoreMost’s portfolio rapidly through the hit-to-lead and lead-optimisation stages of drug discovery.

Dr Chris Torrance CEO of PhoreMost, said: “Since its inception, PhoreMost’s model has been to forge a new approach to drug discovery, working collaboratively with partners in order to progress new medicines. The alliance with o2h truly reflects this, and represents an important step in our mission to bring a greater diversity of therapies to patients, more quickly and at affordable prices.”

“We have been impressed by the ability of PhoreMost’s SITESEEKER platform to systematically identify first-in-class drug targets in areas of high unmet need, and are excited to be applying our highly complementary capabilities to develop these potentially high value programs,” said Sunil Shah, CEO of o2h discovery: “Our shared vision of working collaboratively is also a testament to the strength of the Cambridge UK Biotech cluster for discovery and progressing the next generation of therapeutics.”

PhoreMost recently announced the completion of an £11m ($15m) Series-A investment round. The investment will be used to expand operations on the Babraham Research Campus and progress several novel drug targets from its next-generation “SITESEEKER” phenotypic screening platform into first-in-class drug discovery programmes.