SOM Biotech signs licensingagreement withthe University of Minnesota
Barcelona, Spain, 16May2022. SOM Biotech ("SOM" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a proprietary AI-based drug discovery technology and a focus on neurological orphan diseases, today announces that it has signed a licensing agreement with the University of Minnesota.
This license agreement follows the completion of research under a sponsored research agreement (SRA) signed in 2019, in which the University of Minnesota conducted a series of in vitro studies on potential pre-clinical product candidates for Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy identified using SOM Biotech's exclusive platform, SOMAIPRO. The work under the SRA resulted in inventions covering nine potential product candidates, which SOM chose to license exclusively from the University of Minnesota. SOM is currently conducting additional preclinical studies at the University of Minnesota to select the best potential candidates to take forward into development for Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy. The project was performed with the support of the Duchenne Parent Project Spain.
Raúl Insa, Chief Executive Officer of SOM Biotech, said: "This agreement with the University of Minnesota, a leading globalresearch university, shows the exceptional value provided byour SOMAIPROplatformand its unique approach to AI-based drug discovery. The research that has already been conducted by the University of Minnesota is very encouraging and we are looking forward to continuing that at SOM Biotechin order to bring innovative potential treatments to patientswith high unmet medical needs."
SOM Biotech successfully uses SOMAIPRO to identify drugs effective for the treatment of a specific disease, to discover new mechanisms of action and new applications for a drug, and to predict the toxicity of the compounds, as well as the molecular scaffolds for compounds active on a given target. While other AI-based approaches use methods based on data mining, structural similarity, or the target structure, SOMAIPRO uses molecular fields, allowing for an increased rate of success, with results achieved in the shortest possible time and considerably reducing the costs associated with drug discovery.
ENDS
For more information about SOM Biotech, please contact:
Media Contact:
Maria Zimina
zimina@sombiotech.com
Consilium Strategic Communications
Amber Fennell, Lindsey Neville, Giulia Lasagni
sombio@consilium-comms.com
About University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota is a leading American public research university with a billion dollar annual research enterprise that embodies its tagline, Driven to Discover. It is well regarded among commercial partners for bringing researchers' cutting-edge innovations to market through successful licensing and startup partnerships.
About SOM Biotech
SOM Biotech (www.sombiotech.com) - established in 2009 - is a biopharmaceutical company based in Barcelona, Spain. SOM has an extensive portfolio of product candidates that includes drugs for neurological orphan diseases including TTR Amyloidosis, Huntington's disease, Tardive Dyskinesia and Phenylketonuria. The company engages in accelerated discovery of therapies through a proprietary artificial intelligence-based computational technology (SOMAIPRO) and develops strategic partnerships with major research centers and pharmaceutical companies. The Company has received partial funding for a number of its programs from the Spanish Ministries of Science and Innovation (CDTI) and Industry (ENISA).
