Ensemble and Alexion Collaborate on Innovative Drug Development

Biotechnology company Ensemble Therapeutics and global biopharmaceutical company Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. have formed a collaboration in an effort to together develop innovative new treatments for life-threatening, ultra-rare disorders.

Ensemble will supply proprietary drug discovery platforms to facilitate the more rapid and efficient development of therapeutic candidates inspired by drug targets identified by its partner.

Alexion will screen the company's novel class of small molecule therapeutics, Ensemblins, of which the collection exceeds ten million, to determine whether any are compatible with the drug targets it has discovered.

Chief executive of Ensemble Dr Michael D Taylor said: "Ensemble is thrilled to support Alexion’s cutting edge scientific and clinical programmes with our ever increasing capability for macrocycle-based drug discovery."

This method has been recognised as innovative and full of potential, but Joanna Kotz said in a SciBX article that the opportunities the field presents are "rivaled only by the challenge of puzzling out the basic science underlying these molecules".