Melior enters new pharmaceutical collaboration

US-based drug discovery company Melior Discovery has signed an agreement with Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development (J&JPRD) for use of Melior's proprietary theraTRACE indications discovery platform to identify new indications for multiple J&JPRD drug candidates.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Melior's theraTRACE platform is a multiplexed set of integrated in-vivo models which quickly identify previously unknown applications for pharmaceutical compounds. It can be applied to discovery, development stage and marketed agents and has already identified novel indications for a number of development stage drugs.

Dr Andrew Reaume, president and CEO of Melior, said of the agreement: "Our theraTRACE indications discovery platform is already proving its value in our existing collaborations with Merck and Pfizer, as well as in screening for our own drug development efforts. We are delighted to be working with J&JPRD, and we look forward to a productive collaboration."