BioVersys links with GSK and others to develop preclinical candidates in tuberculosis

Privately-held Swiss biotech company BioVersys has entered a collaboration with UK pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) to develop a preclinical candidate against tuberculosis (TB), funded by the Wellcome Trust. The financial terms of the agreement are not disclosed.

The collaboration will utilize BioVersys’ award-winning innovative TRIC technology that enables the discovery of transcriptional regulator inhibitory compounds. The project, built on a very long history of TB research in Lille, France, will advance molecules that reactivate the efficacy of established TB therapies.

The University of Lille consortium comprises leading scientists in TB research and drug discovery from the Institut Pasteur de Lille, Universite Lille 2, Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM) and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). The teams of Professors Nicolas Willand, Alain Baulard and Benoit Deprez have significantly contributed to the compounds relevant to the project and were the first to discover the target regulator in TB.