Zealand Pharma and The University of Queensland’s (UQ) commercialisation company UniQuest are set to collaborate to identify novel peptide therapeutics inspired by venoms as potential new treatments for gastrointestinal diseases.
Under the collaboration, Zealand Pharma will use the peptide technology and expertise of UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), as well as expertise from Flinders University in South Australia.
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Zealand Pharma executive vice-president and chief science officer Andrew Parker said: “Accessing peptide libraries and cutting-edge technology is a key element of our strategy to enhance our peptide capabilities and expand our future clinical pipeline.
“Working with the University of Queensland’s unique peptide libraries and peptide expertise will provide an additional option for Zealand to identify novel peptide therapeutics against a range of drug targets to treat gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases.”
The latest collaboration is said to be in line with Zealand Pharma’s strategy to access new technology to develop specialist medicines for the treatment of gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases.
Both the company and the university researchers will work to characterise venom-derived peptides that act against undisclosed targets.
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By GlobalDataThis will help to identify new drug candidates for further development by Zealand Pharma.
UniQuest CEO Dr Dean Moss said: “We are delighted to combine the world-class facilities, and venom-based drug discovery expertise of IMB, with Zealand Pharma’s trailblazing capabilities in peptide drug discovery and development in the under-served market of gastrointestinal diseases.”
