Cresset, innovative provider of computational chemistry software and services, announces that its drug discovery arm Re-Pharm Ltd has used Forge to identify novel anti-inflammatory activity for an existing drug, which is widely prescribed for other non-inflammatory conditions.

Re-Pharm was searching for drugs to be re-purposed against a new enzyme target. Using known ligands and a crystal structure as a starting point, they used Cresset’s Forge to build computational templates to match any compounds likely to be active at the new target. The results were screened and RP0217 was identified as an effective new anti-inflammatory agent. Re-Pharm has filed patents on RP0217 for a variety of disease indications.

“We are delighted that this new activity has been identified as a direct result of work using Cresset software,” says Dr Mark Mackey, CSO at Cresset. “Cresset’s software codifies the electrostatics and shape of compounds in a way that makes it computationally viable to search databases of thousands of compounds to find new chemical series with similar biological activity. This work highlights the immense value of Cresset’s approach for finding new drug activity.”

“We are delighted with the discovery of RP0217 and look forward to its progression through clinical trials,” says Dr Alan Rothaul, CSO at Re-Pharm. “Cresset’s software made it possible to analyse the potential activity of thousands of existing drugs so that we could pinpoint those that were likely to be active against the new enzyme target. Cresset software is a key part of our re-purposing pipeline, and I look forward to many similar future successes.”

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