Barcelona, May 2017 – Prous Institute for Biomedical Research announced today that it has made a strategic investment in Chemotargets SL. Founded by Dr. Jordi Mestres as a spin-off of IMIM Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Chemotargets is a global leader in the provision of predictive analytics solutions to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and research institutions. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The investment will allow Chemotargets to expand its product development and accelerate its innovation plans in the drug discovery & development spaces. In addition, it will permit Chemotargets to grow its customer base and achieve a global presence in the pharmaceutical, healthcare and related industries.
As part of the agreement, Prous Institute will also leverage Chemotargets’ informatics solutions for its own drug discovery programs in the fields of cancer and neurodegeneration.
An immediate milestone of this agreement will be the introduction of a new big data analytics and visualization platform integrating chemistry, genomics, pharmacology, toxicology and therapeutics.
Big data is having an enormous impact in the finding of better and safer drugs. The use of advanced predictive analytics and visualization technologies enables the generation of new working hypotheses by seamlessly navigating within the enormous amount of data coming from modern biomedical research. Chemotargets’ platform optimizes research and development efforts by facilitating the existence of links between small molecules, their primary targets and secondary off-targets, the associated safety issues and the likely use in particular therapeutic areas.
Likewise, in the context of this transaction, the advanced computational approaches developed by Chemotargets will be evolved towards adapting the new platform to the new Precision Medicine paradigm.
“Chemotargets offers a state-of-the-art platform in its field and has a unique vision to develop it into a global solution for emerging applications in the life sciences, from initial drug discovery to clinical point of care” said Dr. Josep Prous, VP of Research & Development, Prous Institute. “We look forward to working closely with Dr Mestres’ team to maximize synergies and add value for customers.”
Dr. Jordi Mestres, Chemotargets’ Founder & CEO commented: “We are very excited about this new partnership with Prous Institute which will allow us to accelerate our product development and innovation plans in the drug discovery space and continue to bring product upgrades and new enhancements to our growing number of end-users. Prous has over 50 years experience creating and managing biomedical knowledge and its reputation for the quality of its data and products is recognized worldwide. In this respect we highly value the agreement for what Prous will bring to Chemotargets beyond growth equity”.
Dr Joaquim Bellmunt, Director of IMIM, said: “Dr. Mestres is a Principal Investigator of IMIM and a pioneer in technology transfer within our Institution. We are delighted to see how our spin-off will be able to move to its next growth phase thanks to this strategic investment from Prous”.
About Prous Institute for Biomedical Research
Prous Institute for Biomedical Research is a privately-held research organization. It was founded as a spin-off of Prous Science, the leading scientific information provider (producer of Drugs of the Future, Drug Data Report and the Integrity drug discovery and development portal, amongst others) acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2007. Based on its longstanding expertise in the creation and management of biomedical knowledge, the company has drug discovery programs in the fields of cancer and neurodegeneration, which has led to various preclinical candidates. Additionally, Prous Institute has invested in numerous companies in the field of life sciences including drug discovery, medical diagnostics, medical imaging or enabling technologies organizations.
About Chemotargets
Chemotargets S.L. is a computationally-oriented biotech company focused on the drug discovery and development areas. Located in Barcelona, it was founded in March 2006 as a spin-off initiative from the Chemogenomics Laboratory under the auspices of the IMIM Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute. Chemotargets’ goal is to help the biopharma industry fast-forward the process of bringing new medicines to market, speeding up drug discovery and development programs, and making them more cost-efficient. To this end, Chemotargets has designed, and continues to develop, an integrated technology platform involving a broad spectrum of cutting-edge computational methodologies.
About IMIM
The IMIM Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute is a public body dedicated to scientific research in the field of Biomedicine and Health Sciences. Located at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), IMIM is up to 82%, made up of research groups lead by professionals from the MAR Health Park, most of whom are associates of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), as well as other seconded staff members from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences of the Pompeu Fabra University (DCEXS-UPF), the Centre of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona (CMRB) and the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB).
For further information, please contact:
Atrevia
Mercè Mascarell
Tel. +34 93 419 06 30
MMASCARELL@ATREVIA.COM
Communication Department IMIM
Rosa Manaut
Tel. +34 618 509 885
RMANAUT@IMIM.ES
