Singapore: Phylogica, a leading Australian peptide drug discovery company, is expanding its collaboration with Janssen Biotech to discover, develop and commercialize new classes of peptide drug conjugates derived from Phylogica's Phylomer drug discovery platform. Phylogica has received an undisclosed payment for funding additional research associated with the expansion of the collaboration.

The agreement with Janssen was originally executed in December 2011. This expansion of the collaboration follows the successful identification of Phylomers that specifically target the tissue-type of interest and internalise a payload within the cell.

This screening phase was conducted using Phylogica's second-generation Phylomer libraries and newly developed technology to detect Phylomer conjugates that not only penetrate cells but, importantly, also deliver their payload functionally within the cell. Phylogica has recently filed a patent application on this platform enhancement.

Phylogica and Janssen have expanded the collaboration to explore further the ability of the Phylomer conjugates to function within the cell. This additional step is anticipated to take about six months to complete and will further validate Phylogica's intracellular delivery capabilities.

Dr Paul Watt, CEO, Phylogica, said that, "We are delighted to expand our collaboration on peptide drug conjugates with Janssen to include additional functional validation of intracellular delivery. Our Phylomer platform offers capabilities to discover unique cell-penetrating peptides and to detect only those peptide conjugates that are functionally active with the cell. This core competence further differentiates Phylogica from its peers and is gaining increasing attention from the pharmaceutical industry."