B-MS Invests In Cadus Pharmaceutical

Bristol-Myers Squibb has entered into a three-year collaboration with Cadus Pharmaceutical. B-MS is investing up to $45 million in the company's screening technology which is based on yeast strains. A joint committee is to supervise the research at Cadus and B-MS research facilities in three US locations.

The technology is based on a series of yeast strains that contain human G protein-coupled receptors. These function in yeast cells as if they were human cells, according to Cadus. The technology can be used to screen several thousand compounds a day.

Cadus says that over 1,000 sub-types of G protein-coupled receptors have been identified, including receptors which may be identified with diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, atherosclerosis, obesity, stroke and some cancers.