ASTELLAS AND MERLION PHARMACEUTICALS ANNOUNCE NEW DRUG DISCOVERY AGREEMENT

Astellas Pharma Inc. (Head Office: Tokyo, Japan, President & CEO: Toichi Takenaka, "Astellas") and MerLion Pharmaceuticals Pte Ltd ("MerLion") of Singapore today announced the signature of a collaborative agreement to discover and develop new drug candidates derived from natural products chemistry. Under the collaboration agreement, MerLion will receive a pipeline of validated drug targets from the Astellas portfolio and will utilise its extensive natural sample collection, its modern high throughput screening facilities and experienced natural products chemistry skills for the identification of new chemical seeds.

Biotech Intelligence (http://www.biotech-intelligence.com/html/html/2e2ea6c43bcefc75f4b2f5ce13566a2e.html)