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ChemBridge Research Laboratories, LLC (CRL) and Merck KGaA announced today successful accomplishment of their first collaboration project. In August 2003, CRL entered into a contract research agreement with Merck KGaA to provide CRL's discovery research capabilities to Merck. During the recent collaboration project CRL scientists synthesized multiple series of focused libraries under application of CRL's high-throughput medicinal chemistry platform to complement Merck's in-house lead finding efforts. Further details and financial terms were not disclosed.
"CRL helped us to acquire innovative molecules for our corporate screening collection", said Dr. Peter Raddatz, Director of Global Medicinal Chemistry at Merck KGaA. "The smooth and efficient collaboration provided us with new scaffolds and pharmacophores that are yet unprecedented in the literature. We have set high quality standards and CRL met them to our great satisfaction."
"Our excellent experience working together with Merck in Darmstadt has grown into an important and valued partnership for CRL," said Sven H. Wagner, Ph.D., Associate Director of Business Development of CRL. "But we were also able to prove once again our ability to deliver discovery research results of high quality in fast iteration to our European partners."
Alexander Chucholowski, Ph.D., Executive Director of Chemistry, commented "We appreciate that Merck Darmstadt has selected CRL for this intense and time driven research project. The seamless interaction with Merck Medicinal Chemistry attests to CRL's methodical approach to qualify as a premier partner for drug discovery."
With more than 34,500 employees in 53 countries, the Merck Group generated sales of EUR 7.5 billion in 2002. Founded in 1668 in Darmstadt, Germany, the company aims to be a world leader within its core businesses of pharmaceuticals and chemicals. The Merck Group strongly believes the key to its long-term business success is innovative products created by entrepreneurial and talented employees. Merck groups its operating activities under Merck KGaA, in which the Merck family holds 74% and the remaining 26% is publicly traded. The former U.S. subsidiary, Merck & Co., has been a completely independent company since 1917.
ChemBridge Research Laboratories, LLC (CRL), www.chembridgeresearch.com , is a discovery chemistry research company based in San Diego. Founded in 2000 as a spin-off of ChemBridge Corporation, CRL has quickly built a world-class research organization with a track record of exceeding goals on all its discovery chemistry collaborations including major multi-year strategic alliances with Pfizer and Merck. The list of CRL's partners also includes Eisai, GlaxoSmithKline, GNF, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Tanabe, and Tularik. CRL's comprehensive discovery chemistry platform encompasses medicinal, efficient solution/solid phase, high-throughput, and versatile large scale chemistry, supported by automated purification/analytical/ QC, computational chemistry, as well as complementary bioassay and early ADMET capabilities. With a core expertise in several important drug target super families and access to ChemBridge's entire enabling chemistry tools portfolio, CRL can tackle the most challenging hit-to-lead, lead optimization, and other collaborative discovery chemistry projects.
Phyllis Carter
Phone +49 6151/72 7144
External Communications
Corporate Media Relations
Frankfurter Straße 250
64293 Darmstadt
www.merck.de
Barry A. Wolitzky, Ph.D.
Vice President of Business Development
Phone: +1-858-485-9900
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