Asterand, TechTown’s largest and first tenant, announced May 4 that its subsidiary BioSeek, LLC, signed a two-year agreement with Eisai Co., Ltd., a Japanese health care research company. The agreement allows Eisai to advance its health care research projects in oncology and inflammation using BioSeek’s proprietary BioMAP® platform. BioSeek is a pioneer in the application of predictive human biology to drug discovery.

Asterand is the leading global supplier of high quality, well characterized human tissue and human tissue-based research services to drug discovery scientists. The company offers unparalleled access to human tissue through its worldwide network of 83 active collaborative donor institutions.

This is Asterand’s second announcement of a multi-year agreement in two months. In March, Asterand announced that its subsidiary BioSeek entered a three-year drug discovery collaboration with a Japanese firm, Ono Pharmaceuticals. Read more on the Ono agreement here.

Read more details of the Eisai agreement below.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. & TOKYO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Asterand plc (LSE: ATD), a leading provider of human tissue and human tissue-based services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies engaged in drug discovery, today announces that its subsidiary BioSeek, LLC, a pioneer in the application of predictive human biology to drug discovery, has signed a two-year collaboration agreement with Eisai Co., Ltd., a research-based human health care company headquartered in Japan.

Under the agreement, BioSeek will apply its proprietary BioMAP® platform to advance Eisai’s multiple discovery projects in the oncology and inflammation areas. The agreement encompasses scientific projects at Eisai sites in the U.S. and Japan. The financial terms include research funding, success milestones payments and license fees: specific terms were not disclosed.

Asterand CEO, Martyn Coombs commented:

“We are honoured that Eisai has chosen to incorporate BioSeek’s unique BioMAP® technology platform into its drug discovery process. This master agreement is yet another strong endorsement of our BioMAP® human-based disease model. We look forward to assisting Eisai in its quest to develop new therapies for cancer and inflammatory conditions.”

BioMAP® Systems are primary cell-based models of human disease biology, designed to replicate the intricate cell and pathway interactions as they are observed in human pharmacology and toxicology. Depending on their mechanism of action, drug compounds induce specific patterns of changes in these systems (BioMAP® profiles) that can be compared to a large number of reference profiles in the BioMAP® Database. BioMAP® provides early insight into human pharmacological and toxicological properties of compounds, including on- and off-target effects, dose responses, and the discrimination of closely related compounds.

About Asterand plc

Asterand is a leading global supplier of high quality human tissue and tissue-based services. BioSeek LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Asterand plc, is improving the success rate of pharmaceutical research and development by integrating human biology from the earliest stages of drug discovery onward. Our comprehensive approach to human tissue and research services offers pharmaceutical, biotech and diagnostic companies the unique opportunity to have one company meet all of their human biomaterial needs along the continuum of drug discovery and development. Our mission is to accelerate target discovery and compound validation and enable pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to take safer and more effective drugs into the market. For more information about Asterand and BioSeek, please visit www.asterand.com.

Contacts

Asterand plc

Shannon Richey, Director of Marketing

Karen Hildebrandt, Marketing Communications Supervisor

(313) 263-0960