Asterand extends its collaboration agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb

Nov 23 2009

Asterand plc (LSE: ATD), a leading provider of human tissue and human tissue-based services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies engaged in drug discovery research, today announced that it has extended its collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) for access to Asterand's products and services for up to three years. The agreement will focus on access to Asterand's PhaseZERO® drug discovery services and Asterand's XpressBANK^TM of human tissue and clinical samples for the continued validation of early drug targets and support for compound optimisation.

Asterand CEO Martyn Coombs commented:

“This decision by Bristol-Myers Squibb is an important validation of Asterand's products and services. Asterand provides human based solutions that improve decision making during the development of medicines. Our customers incorporate human tissue-based models at all stages of development from target identification to pre-clinical research. We are delighted that Bristol-Myers Squibb has renewed our collaboration and our team looks forward to continuing to support their target validation and compound optimisation programmes.”

Under the extended collaboration, Asterand will continue to undertake a range of PhaseZERO® studies for Bristol-Myers Squibb in the areas of compound profiling and target validation. PhaseZERO® studies include gene and protein expression profiling and cell-based pharmacology assays. Likewise, Bristol-Myers Squibb will be granted access to Asterand's XpressBANK^TM of human tissue, bio-fluid, and cell lines and may also utilize Asterand's ProCURE^TM custom clinical sample collection service.