Hit Discovery Constance GmbH: a New European Hub for HTS and Compound Management

Hit Discovery Constance GmbH (“HDC”), a new joint venture organization between Lead Discovery Center (Dortmund/Germany), Centre for Drug Design and Discovery (CD3, KULeuven, Leuven/Belgium) and Axxam (Milan/Italy) has started its operation. The new company is based in Constance (Germany) and will make use of the already established equipment and know-how of the former Takeda/Nycomed/Altana screening and compound management facilities at the site.

HDC is a service oriented company which provides high quality drug discovery research services to the Life Science industry and academic or research institutions. The offering includes assay development, High Throughput Screening (“HTS”) using radiometric formats, as well as conventional biochemical and cellular assay formats, automated High Content Screening (“HCS”) and Biosafety level 2 (BSL2) HTS. HDC’s labs are equipped with three state-of-the-art screening stations, a Screening Collection of 240.000 compounds and offer a REMP-based compound storage & handling facility which allows high quality storage and high throughput compound picking activities. Combined with Axxam`s already established HTS services and compound storage facilities, HDC represent one of the largest screening hubs worldwide.

Stefan Lohmer, Chief Executive Officer at Axxam, commented “today`s opening of HDC, excellently positioned in the middle of Europe, is a further important strategic expansion for our service business, perfectly complementing our existing offers by providing the next level of compound management combined with fully automated Radiometric and High Content Screening, thereby responding to the increasing demands for these screening technologies. Now for all the different targets of interest, the most suitable assay format can be chosen, developed and screened”.

“The availability of such HTS and compound management hub also for academic and translational research activities is a significant step forward for the European research community and will boost drug discovery and chemical biology programs significantly in terms of timelines as well as the quality of the hit compounds identified in a screening operation. We are very happy to revive this research site in Constance which has a longstanding history in successful drug discovery”, added Bert Klebl, Managing Director at LDC.

Patrick Chaltin, Managing Director at CD3, is very pleased with the collaborative effort and joint venture spirit between the partners which has led to the establishment of the HDC. “With HDC, a new fully automated HTS centre is available for industry as well as for academic and research institutions which can become an important player in the increasing translational drug discovery efforts”.

About Lead Discovery Center
Lead Discovery Center (LDC) is a translational drug discovery company which takes on promising early-stage projects and collaboratively transforms them with its academic partners into innovative pharmaceutical leads with proof-of-concept in animal.
LDC sustains a preferred partnership with the Max Planck Society and has formed alliances with AstraZeneca, Bayer and Merck Serono as well as leading academic drug discovery centers around the globe.

For more information: www.lead-discovery.de.

About CD3
The Centre for Drug Design and Discovery (CD3) is a technology transfer platform and investment fund focusing on the discovery and development of innovative medicines for all kinds of diseases. By providing the necessary drug expertise and financial resources, CD3 ensures that biomedical research carried out by universities and small biotech companies is translated into starting points for promising new medicines. Subsequently, such new potential medicines can then be further developed by pharma or biotech industry or can form the basis for the establishment of new biotechs. CD3 was set up at the end of 2006 by KU Leuven Research & Development and the European Investment Fund (EIF).
For more information: www.cd3.eu.

About Axxam
Axxam is a privately owned contract research and discovery company. The Company has
developed a proven track record as a third party research and discovery services provider for the life science industry, including pharma, biotech, crop protection, animal health, cosmetics and nutrition. In addition, Axxam conducts several drug discovery programs for selected targets which are carried out in partnership with other companies or non-profit organizations.
For more information: www.axxam.com.