Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners, Inc. (HQ: Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan; “Axcelead DDP”) announced that it has entered into a drug discovery service agreement with Astellas Pharma, Inc. (HQ: Chuo-Ku, Tokyo, Japan; “Astellas”) to explore new candidate compounds for targeted protein degraders.

Axcelead DDP focuses on targeted protein degradation as the next generation of small-molecule drug discovery and provides an integrated service solution called DegLead^TM Platform to solve various challenges in targeted protein degrader discovery, including synthetic technologies for rapid generation of targeted protein degraders, compound libraries, diverse high-throughput screening systems and profiling assay systems.

Under the agreement, Axcelead DDP will support Astellas’ targeted protein degrader discovery utilizing DegLead^TM Platform and contribute to the generation of breakthrough new drug candidate compounds.

“We are pleased to conclude this agreement with Astellas based on their positive evaluation of our core technology – the integrated DegLead^TMPlatform solution,” said Kengo Okada, PhD., Representative Director and CEO of Axcelead DDP. “This agreement is evidence that our drug discovery solution for targeted protein degrader is a promising service that provides proprietary value to our clients. We continue to support our clients' drug discovery by continuously evolving our pharmaceutical company-derived drug discovery platform by incorporating cutting-edge technologies.”