Two Swiss Companies Seeking Drug Leads for Colon Cancer

Two Swiss companies announced they have entered into a collaborative research agreement to identify drug leads for the treatment of colon cancer.

Discovery Partners International Inc., based near Basel, and The Genetics Company Inc., based in Zurich, said they intended to test thousands of chemical substances in a High Throughput Screen for their ability to block the activity of a critical protein and to thus inhibit uncontrolled cell division.

The Genetics Company earlier announced that its researchers, together with the University of Zurich, had identified what could prove to be a key factor in treating human colon cancer.

The Genetics Company and Discovery Partners said in a joint statement that they expected, as a result of their collaboration, that "a suitable substance will be found which subsequently can be developed into an effective medicine for treating colon cancer."

Other Sources: Genetics Company and Discovery Partners