BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WA. January 31, 2012. Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Foster City, CA) and Emerald BioStructures, Inc. have launched a collaboration to crystallize a novel integral membrane protein drug target.  The structural studies will support Gilead’s efforts to use structural insights to support drug discovery for this challenging class of targets.  The project will make use of Emerald’s high throughput crystallization platform and specialized membrane protein crystallization tool set and includes a technology transfer component. 
 
About Emerald BioStructures                                                           
Emerald BioStructures is an integrated gene-to-structure contract research organization that provides collaborative drug discovery services to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and government facilities. Emerald has extensive expertise in the engineered expression, protein production and crystal structure determination of GPCRs and integral membrane proteins. The company operates a high-throughput platform leveraged for fragment-based lead discovery and structure-based drug design. Emerald’s work provides a solid foundation for the discovery of highly selective, efficacious drugs. www.emeraldbiostructures.com

About Gilead Sciences
Gilead Sciences is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and commercializes innovative therapeutics in areas of unmet medical need. Gilead’s mission is to advance the care of patients suffering from life-threatening diseases worldwide. Headquartered in Foster City, California, Gilead has operations in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Emerald BioStructures Contact:
Emerald BioStructures: Diana Wetmore, VP of Business Development & Alliances (206) 780-8959, dwetmore@embios.com

For Media:
Mary Canady, Comprendia LLC
mcanady@comprendia.com

About Emerald BioStructures                                                           
Emerald BioStructures is an integrated gene-to-structure contract research organization that provides collaborative drug discovery services to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and government facilities. The company operates a high-throughput platform leveraged for fragment-based lead discovery, structure-based drug design, and elucidation of antibody-antigen structures. Emerald’s work provides a solid foundation for the discovery of highly selective, efficacious drugs. www.emeraldbiostructures.com

About Heptares
Heptares is a drug discovery company creating new medicines targeting G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The company is currently leveraging its GPCR expertise and proprietary StaR® technology to build a pipeline of best-in-class and first-in-class GPCR-targeted medicines for the treatment of CNS, metabolic and other diseases. www.heptares.com

Emerald BioStructures Contact:
Emerald BioStructures: Diana Wetmore, VP of Business Development & Alliances (206) 780-8959, dwetmore@embios.com

Emerald to Apply Fragment Screening and Structural Biology Expertise to Support UCB Pipeline

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE - October 26, 2011)--Emerald BioStructures today announced a three-year extension of its ongoing collaboration with UCB. The strategic aspects of this renewed relationship will provide Emerald with research funding over the three-year period and the opportunity to receive milestones and royalties on future drug product revenues.

“The collaborative nature of our relationship with the team at Emerald BioStructures has been instrumental in elucidating multiple targets and identifying promising, novel lead compounds in our discovery programs,” commented Dr. Ismail Kola, President, UCB NewMedicines.

Emerald will apply its high-throughput crystallography and ligand characterization expertise to provide fragment screening and structural biology support for UCB’s severe diseases discovery programs. Emerald and UCB first entered into collaboration in February 2009.

“It is our mission to enable companies like UCB with structural insights,” commented Diana Wetmore, VP of Business Development and Alliances at Emerald BioStructures. “We are very excited about moving into this new phase with UCB, expanding our role in the discovery of breakthrough medicines for unmet needs.”

Meet Emerald BioStructures at BIOEurope in Dusseldorf, Germany – October 31-November 2

Diana Wetmore, VP of Business Development and Alliances at Emerald BioStructures, will be participating in the partnering forum at BIOEurope in Dusseldorf, Germany and is available for select one-on-one meetings with interested parties.

About UCB

UCB, Brussels, Belgium (http://www.ucb.com) is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases of the immune system or of the central nervous system. With more than 8 500 people in about 40 countries, the company generated revenue of EUR 3.2 billion in 2010. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB).

About Emerald BioStructures

Emerald BioStructures is an integrated gene-to-structure contract research organization that provides collaborative drug discovery services to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and government facilities. The company operates a high-throughput platform leveraged for fragment-based lead discovery, structure-based drug design, and elucidation of antibody-antigen structures. Emerald’s work provides a solid foundation for the discovery of highly selective, efficacious drugs. http://www.emeraldbiostructures.com

Contacts

For Emerald BioStructures:
Diana Wetmore, 206-780-8959
or
For Media:
MacDougall Biomedical Communications
Jennifer Conrad, 781-235-3060

Bainbridge Island, WA. October 14, 2011. Pieris AG (Freising, Germany ) has selected Emerald BioStructures, Inc. to resolve the three dimensional structures of bioengineered Anticalin® proteins in complex with target antigen proteins.  The structural studies will support Pieris’ efforts to confirm details of Anticalin-antigen interactions and utilize the information for structure guided design of next generation protein therapeutics.  This fee based and milestone project will utilize Emerald’s high throughput crystallization platform and biophysical tool set for characterization of protein-protein and antigen-antibody interactions.

About Emerald BioStructures

Emerald BioStructures is an integrated gene-to-structure contract research organization that provides collaborative drug discovery services to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and government facilities. The company operates a high-throughput platform leveraged for fragment-based lead discovery, structure-based drug design, and elucidation of antibody-antigen structures. Emerald’s work provides a solid foundation for the discovery of highly selective, efficacious drugs. www.emeraldbiostructures.com

About Pieris AG

Pieris AG is an independent, clinical-staged biotechnology company advancing its proprietary Anticalin® technology to create safer, more efficacious and more convenient protein therapeutics.  Exclusive to Pieris, Anticalin-based drugs promise to address high-unmet medical needs and expand the therapeutic potential of current targeted approaches.  Pieris’ pipeline ranges from its Phase I compound, PRS-050 (anti-VEGF, oncology), to multiple Anticalins in preclinical development. The company has four ongoing discovery and development collaborations: Daiichi Sankyo, Takeda San Francisco, the Sanofi Group and Allergan.  Privately held, Pieris has been funded by premier biotechnology-focused venture capital, including lead investors OrbiMed Advisors and Global Life Science Ventures.  For more information, please visit: www.pieris-ag.com.

Emerald BioStructures Contact:
Emerald BioStructures: Diana Wetmore, VP of Business Development & Alliances (206) 780-8959, dwetmore@embios.com

Pieris AG Contact:
Pieris AG: Laurent Audoly PhD, CSO and Head of Research & Development, Audoly@pieris-ag.com

Bainbridge Island, WA. September 30, 2011. Deciphera Pharmaceuticals LLC (Lawrence, Kansas) has renewed an agreement with Emerald BioStructures, Inc. to elucidate the X-ray co-crystal structures of novel “Switch Pocket Inhibitors” bound to kinase targets implicated in tumor growth and autoimmune diseases. Emerald and Deciphera have had a longstanding collaboration which has resulted in the atomic resolution structure determination of more than 100 effectors bound kinase co-crystal structures. This fee based and milestone project will utilize Emerald’s Crystal Ready™ kinase and high throughput crystallization platforms.

About Emerald BioStructures                                                           
Emerald BioStructures is an integrated gene-to-structure contract research organization that provides collaborative drug discovery services to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and government facilities. The company operates a high-throughput platform leveraged for fragment-based lead discovery, structure-based drug design, and elucidation of antibody-antigen structures. Emerald’s work provides a solid foundation for the discovery of highly selective, efficacious drugs. www.emeraldbiostructures.com

About Deciphera Pharmaceuticals
Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, LLC was established in 2003 as a drug discovery and development company with the mission to design, optimize and introduce “best-in-class” small molecule Switch Inhibitors of protein kinases for human clinical trials and the global pharmaceutical marketplace through the use of its proprietary drug discovery technology platform, Phylomechanics.  www.deciphera.com

Emerald BioStructures Contact:
Emerald BioStructures: Diana Wetmore, VP of Business Development & Alliances (206) 780-8959, dwetmore@embios.com

Deciphera Pharmaceuticals Contact:
Daniel Flynn, CEO, (785) 830-2100, dflynn@deciphera.com

About Emerald BioStructures:

Emerald BioStructures is an integrated gene-to-structure contract research organization that provides collaborative drug discovery services to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and government facilities. The company operates a high-throughput platform leveraged for fragment-based lead discovery and structure-based drug design. Emerald's work provides a solid foundation for the discovery of highly selective, efficacious drugs. www.emeraldbiostructures.com

Special Journal Edition Chronicles 3D Structures of Important Antibacterial and Bioterrorist Targets

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwire - September 1, 2011) - The September issue of the online scientific journal Acta Crystallographica: Structural Biology and Crystallization Communications (Acta Cryst F) will consist entirely of work done at the Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease (SSGCID), a consortium of researchers from Seattle BioMed, Emerald BioStructures, the University of Washington and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). This free online edition (found at http://journals.iucr.org/f/issues/2011/09/00/issconts.html) features 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts, describing 40 unique infectious disease protein structures, as well as high-throughput gene-to-structure methodologies developed by SSGCID, and marks only the second time that Acta Cryst F has dedicated an entire issue to a single Structural Genomics center. The elucidation of such a large number of protein structures by the SSGCID consortium, all of which are freely available to scientific researchers to study and compare, provides a highly detailed "blueprint" for fighting infectious disease and bioterrorism.

Funded in late 2007 by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to determine the three-dimensional structures of proteins from biodefense organisms and emerging infectious diseases; the SSCGID is directed by Dr. Peter Myler, a Full Member at Seattle BioMed and principal investigator of the project. "Currently the SSCGID has solved more than 375 protein structures from pathogenic microbes, providing much-needed new knowledge that serves as a starting point for structure-based drug design," said Myler. Many SSGCID structures also contain information on how small molecules bind to infectious disease proteins, providing highly valuable information for a drug discovery and development. Lance Stewart, CEO of Emerald BioStructures and co-principal investigator of the SSGCID project, commented "We've worked together to create an environment that combines the best of academia and industry. Instead of competing on infectious disease targets and drug compounds as traditional pharma or biotech companies do, we are building a shared knowledge base aimed at addressing important unmet needs."

The manuscripts featured in Acta Cryst F discuss potential drug-targets from organisms that cause some of the world's deadliest diseases, including emerging pathogens and possible bioterror agents. One paper in the September edition features new insight into an iron-binding protein (called rubredoxin) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB), a disease which is responsible for nearly two million deaths annually. The new understanding of the protein's biological function revealed by this structure may speed up the development of new drug therapies urgently needed to prevent TB epidemics due to the recent emergence of multi drug-resistant (MDR) and extremely drug-resistant (XDR) strains. Coccidioides immitis, a lesser-known organism featured in the SSGCID special edition, causes coccidioidomycisis or "Valley Fever" in the southwestern U.S. This sometimes-fatal disease can be contracted when a person breathes fungal spores from dust or dirt that has been disturbed by wind, and can cause fever, chest pain and coughing, among other more severe symptoms. The genome of C. immitis was sequenced recently, but very few of its proteins have been structurally characterized. The structures solved by SSGCID will increase the understanding of important enzymes involved in detoxification and nucleotide biosynthesis/salvage within this pathogenic fungus.

According to Myler, scientists from the SSCGID and its sister organization, the Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases (CSGID), which is led by Dr. Wayne Anderson of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, gathered in Seattle in early August to review structures solved to date and determine priorities for the next year. "Between the two centers, we will solve over 1,000 structures by the end of 2012," said Myler. "With new information that is shared immediately through the NIH-supported Protein Data Bank (www.pdb.org), we are providing critical starting points for discovery and development of novel drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for a wide range of infectious diseases."

ABOUT SEATTLE BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE:
Seattle BioMed is the largest independent, non-profit organization in the U.S. focused solely on infectious disease research. Our research is the foundation for new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics that benefit those who need our help most: the 14 million who will otherwise die each year from infectious diseases, including malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. Founded in 1976, Seattle BioMed has more than 360 staff members. By partnering with key collaborators around the globe, we strive to make discoveries that will save lives sooner. For more information, visit www.seattlebiomed.org.

ABOUT EMERALD BIOSTRUCTURES:
Emerald BioStructures is an integrated gene-to-structure contract research organization (CRO) that provides collaborative drug discovery services to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and government facilities. The company operates a high-throughput platform leveraged for fragment-based lead discovery and structure-based drug design. Emerald's work provides a solid foundation for the discovery of highly selective, efficacious drugs. Learn more at www.emeraldbiostructures.com.

Full Title: Emerald BioStructures’ Structural Biology Expertise Supports Advancement of Three New Drug Candidates

Download a PDF of this Press Release

Bainbridge Island WA, June 7, 2011— Emerald BioStructures, a leading provider of integrated structural biology services, today announced that protein crystal structures determined at Emerald BioStructures have supported the advancement of three drug candidates to clinical trials, for leukemia, asthma, and spinal muscular atrophy. This milestone brings the total count of Emerald’s collaborator INDs (investigational new drugs) to eight, with six of these in clinical trials, and makes Emerald BioStructures one of the most prolific structure-based drug design contract service organizations in the world.

Targeted drug design enables the progress of the most promising candidates for clinical development and increases chances of clinical success because it reveals molecules with desirable properties, such as high solubility, low molecular weight, and other drug-like qualities. “The Emerald team congratulates our colleagues at Deciphera, N30, and Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy and its development partner RepliGen for their tremendous achievements to bring breakthrough new drug candidates into clinical trials.  We feel privileged to have had the opportunity to provide high resolution structural insight to guide the development of these clinical-stage drug candidates,” said Lance Stewart, CEO of Emerald BioStructures.

The three drug candidates include: DCC-2036, being developed for the treatment of a resistant form of leukemia and in trials sponsored by Deciphera Pharmaceuticals and researchers at Tufts Medical Center, M.D. Anderson, and the University of Michigan; N6022, being developed for the treatment of asthma and in trials sponsored by N30 Pharmaceuticals LLC; and RG3039, being developed for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy and in trials sponsored by RepliGen Corporation in cooperation with Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy.  

"The power in designing drugs based on structures of biological targets is that we’re able to rapidly discover novel therapies that affect the molecular mechanisms responsible for the disorder,” said Gary Rosenthal, Ph.D, Executive Vice President Research at N30 Pharmaceuticals. Their investigational new drug is the first GSNOR inhibitor to enter human clinical development. The March 2011 issue of American Chemical Society Medicinal Chemistry Letters documents this work in a paper titled, “Discovery of S-Nitrosoglutathione Reductase Inhibitors: Potential Agents for the Treatment of Asthma and Other Inflammatory Diseases.”

“The molecular targeting performed at Emerald allowed us to tailor our drug candidate DCC-2036 to the specific mutation that causes resistance to traditional therapies for this type of leukemia,” said Daniel Flynn, CEO of Deciphera. “Structure-based drug design is promising in its efficiency and Emerald offers best-in-class structural biology services.” The Deciphera drug candidate is being developed to treat individuals with leukemia who have developed a mutant enzyme that leads to a relapse that is resistant to all currently marketed therapies. DCC-2036 blocks this mutation at the molecular level.  The work is documented in a paper titled, “Conformational Control Inhibition of the BCR-ABL1 Tyrosine Kinase, Including the Gatekeeper T315I Mutant, by the Switch-Control Inhibitor DCC-2036” in the April 2011 issue of the publication Cancer Cell.

“Emerald’s structural insights helped us to identify an important target called ‘DcpS‘ which plays a role in gene expression.  Our drug candidate inhibits DcpS and improves the activity of a key gene involved in spinal muscular atrophy,” said Jill Jarecki, Ph.D., Research Director of Families of SMA.  This drug candidate has the potential to treat SMA, which is a genetic disorder affecting about 1 in 6,000 births per year and is the leading genetic cause of death in children under the age of two. Emerald’s work on this program is documented in the peer-reviewed paper,“DcpS as a therapeutic target for spinal muscular atrophy.”

About Emerald BioStructures’ Structure-based Drug Design

The lead discovery program at Emerald BioStructures generates drug-like compounds via a high-throughput pipeline for rapidly generating ligand-protein co-crystal X-ray structures.  The process integrates X-ray crystallography, NMR, SPR, and computational modeling to the clients’ target proteins and small molecule ligands.Emerald’sstructural data and collaborative approach have proven to be extremely valuable in helping our clients identify successful drug candidates.

About Emerald BioStructures                                                           

Emerald BioStructures is an integrated gene-to-structure contract research organization that provides collaborative drug discovery services to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and government facilities. The company operates a high-throughput platform leveraged for fragment-based lead discovery and structure-based drug design. Emerald’s work provides a solid foundation for the discovery of highly selective, efficacious drugs. www.emeraldbiostructures.com

About Deciphera Pharmaceuticals

Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, LLC was established in 2003 as a drug discovery and development company with the mission to design, optimize and introduce “best-in-class” small molecule Switch Inhibitors of protein kinases for human clinical trials and the global pharmaceutical marketplace through the use of its proprietary drug discovery technology platform, Phylomechanics.  www.deciphera.com   

About N30 Pharmaceuticals

N30 Pharma is a privately held biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Boulder, Colorado.  N30 Pharma focuses on the discovery and development of proprietary drugs that provide therapeutic advantage over current treatment for major human diseases such as asthma, COPD and IBD. The Company's strategy is to focus upon discovery research and early-stage clinical development, and then establish one or more partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies to further the advancement of its lead clinical candidates. www.n30pharma.com

About Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Families of SMA is a non-profit 501(c)3 tax exempt organization with 30 Chapters throughout the United States and over 70,000 members and supporters.  Families of SMA funds and directs the leading SMA research programs.  The successful results and progress from basic research to drug discovery programs to clinical trials provide real hope for families and patients. www.curesma.org

Contact:

For Emerald BioStructures:

Lance Stewart, CEO

(206) 780-8911

lstewart@embios.com

For Media:

Douglas MacDougall or Jennifer Conrad

MacDougall Biomedical Communications

(781) 235-3060

Download a PDF of this News Announcement

Emerald BioStructures and ChemDiv Establish Co-Marketing Collaboration

-Complementary services address market demand for integrated structure-based drug discovery-

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WA AND SAN DIEGO, CA MARCH 28, 2011—Emerald BioStructures, Inc. (Emerald) and ChemDiv, Inc. (ChemDiv) today announced the formation of a strategic drug discovery and development alliance which will provide biotech and pharmaceutical companies with fully integrated structure based small molecule discovery services, from gene to clinic. This collaboration enhances both companies’ portfolios of offerings to their customers and creates synergistic effects by delivering high quality services and best value to the industry.

Both companies are highly accomplished contract research organizations (CROs) dedicated to helping their customers discover new therapies based on insights into the modulation of biological targets by small molecule ligands.

Emerald offers a comprehensive range of gene-to-lead services for structure based drug discovery. Emerald solves hundreds of new X-ray crystal structures each year. Emerald also offers an innovative fragment-based lead discovery platform, including the Fragments of Life™ library and full biophysical assay support (NMR, X-ray, SPR and others). ChemDiv provides continued access to expertise in chemistry and biology, including but not limited to the world’s largest commercially available library of 1.5M drug-like compounds and its powerful Chemistry-on-Demand platform as well as support for hit-to-lead, lead optimization, PK, ADMET, scale-up, formulation and other pre-clinical and clinical development studies. Partnership with ChemDiv will provide an access to  broad bioscreening and assay development platforms, CMC, formulation and API capabilities, pharmacology and translational research focused on oncology, CNS, CV/metabolics, inflammation and antiinfective  and rare disease therapeutic areas.

The collaboration announced today establishes a strategic preferred partner co-marketing relationship which allows ChemDiv’s clients to access Emerald’s structural biology expertise in solving challenging protein targets. Emerald’s clients can now benefit from the full range of ChemDiv’s discovery and development services. The companies will utilize their distinctive translational and fully integrated drug discovery and development platform to support collaborative efforts.

"This partnership allows both companies to provide a more multidisciplinary service offering to clients in the pre-clinical stages of the drug discovery pipeline,” said Lance Stewart, Ph.D., CEO of Emerald BioStructures.

"We see this as an exciting and significant development for ChemDiv as for some years now we have recognized Emerald BioStructures as worldwide leaders in gene-to-structure research, fragment screening, and structure-based drug design,” said Ilya Okun, Vice President of Biology and CTO at ChemDiv, “The ChemDiv and Emerald capabilities complement each other and bring together a unique combination of innovative technologies to improve drug discovery and development efforts. This collaboration demonstrates the commitment of both companies to further improve customer experiences. It sets a new standard in alliances between collaborative research organizations and accelerates the development of novel drugs for patients."

About Emerald BioStructures:

Emerald BioStructures is an integrated gene-to-structure contract research organization (CRO) that provides collaborative drug discovery services to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and government facilities. The company operates a high-throughput platform leveraged for fragment-based lead discovery and structure-based drug design. Emerald’s work provides a solid foundation for the discovery of highly selective, efficacious drugs.

About ChemDiv, Inc:
ChemDiv collaborates with pharmaceutical and biotech partners by enabling them to accelerate their R&D programs to higher value clinical inflection points. ChemDiv is the only vertically and horizontally integrated discovery and development CRO headquartered in San Diego, CA, with: rational drug design and medicinal chemistry in a broad range of therapeutic areas of target classes; world’s largest small molecule inventory; working with 20 top pharma and 100 top biotechs in all major markets. With its successful 20 years business record in life sciences and over 500 research associates equivalent employed globally ChemDiv has successfully prosecuted fully integrated programs from target to Proof of Concept (POC) and market registration.

Contact:

Emerald BioStructures
Lance Stewart, CEO
206-780-8911
lstewart@embios.com
7869 NE Day Road West
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110

CHEMDIV, INC.
Ronald Demuth
SVP & General Manager
858-794-4860
rdemuth@chemdiv.com
ChemDiv, Inc.
6605 Nancy Ridge Drive
San Diego, CA 92121

Download a PDF of this News Annoucement

Bainbridge Island, WA. February 15th, 2011. Emerald BioStructures has initiated a crystallography initiative with Pharmasset, Inc.  The goal of the milestone-based project is to crystallize a novel macromolecular complex that has not been previously described.  The collaboration provides Pharmasset access to Emerald’s high throughput protein crystallization pipeline and expertise in protein engineering and solving de novo X-ray crystal structures. “After evaluating several vendors, we chose to collaborate with Emerald because of the quality of scientists working there and their proven ability to crystallize and solve novel and difficult structures similar to those of interest to our research team,” said Ralph Mosley, Head of Computational Chemistry at Pharmasset.

“We are excited about the opportunity to potentially provide additional insight into the mode of action of Pharmasset’s exciting compounds and enhance their medicinal chemistry and discovery efforts,” said Lance Stewart, CEO Emerald BioStructures.

About Emerald BioStructures:

Emerald BioStructures is an integrated gene-to-structure collaborative research organization specializing in drug discovery services. Emerald operates an efficient high-throughput platform leveraged for fragment-based lead discovery and structure-based drug design. We provide enabling structural insight for breakthrough drugs that are highly selective and efficacious against chosen targets.

About Pharmasset

Pharmasset is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company committed to discovering, developing, and commercializing novel drugs to treat viral infections. Pharmasset's primary focus is on the development of oral therapeutics for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV). The company’s research and development efforts focus on nucleoside/tide analogs, a class of compounds which act as alternative substrates for the viral polymerase, thus inhibiting viral replication. We currently have three clinical-stage product candidates. RG7128, a cytosine nucleoside analog for chronic HCV infection, is in two Phase 2b clinical studies in combination with Pegasys® plus Copegus® and is also in the INFORM studies, the first series of studies designed to assess the potential of combinations of small molecules without Pegasys® and Copegus® to treat chronic HCV. These clinical studies are being conducted through a strategic collaboration with Roche. Our other clinical stage HCV candidates include PSI-7977, an unpartnered uracil nucleotide analog that is currently dosing in two phase Phase 2b studies in patients with HCV genotypes 1, 2, or 3, and PSI-938, an unpartnered guanosine nucleotide analog which recently completed a 14-day monotherapy study and has recently initiated a 14-day combination study with PSI-7977. We also have in our pipeline an additional purine nucleotide analog, PSI-661, in advanced preclinical development.

Pharmasset Forward-Looking Statement

Pharmasset "Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements," that involve risks, uncertainties, and other important factors, including, without limitation, the risk of cessation or delay of any of the ongoing or planned clinical trials and/or our development of our product candidates, the risk that the results of previously conducted studies involving our product candidates will not be repeated or observed in ongoing or future studies involving our product candidates, the risk that our collaboration with Roche will not continue or will not be successful, and the risk that any one or more of our product candidates will not be successfully developed and commercialized. For a discussion of risks, uncertainties, and other important factors, any of which could cause our actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see the section entitled "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2010 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and discussions of potential risks, uncertainties, and other important factors in our subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact:

Emerald BioStructures:
Lance Stewart, CEO
(206) 780-8911
lstewart@embios.com

Emerald and UCB Expand Collaborative Work in Fragment-Based Drug Discovery, Targeting the Development of Small Molecule Antagonists

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WA. January 7, 2011. Emerald BioStructures, a leading provider of fragment-based drug discovery services, announced today that it has successfully achieved the second milestone in its collaboration with UCB on the structure-based discovery of small molecule modulators of undisclosed targets. 

Working in close collaboration, the team of researchers at Emerald and UCB have solved high-resolution X-ray crystallographic structures of multiple targets, and have identified unique lead series of small molecules.  These molecules were designed based on enabling structural insights of fragment hit molecules previously obtained within the collaboration.

“Emerald and UCB initiated their collaboration partnership in January of 2009, and over the last 24 months, have made significant progress,” said Neil Weir, Sr. VP of Research at UCB.  “We are very impressed with Emerald’s ability to consistently deliver structural insights in a fast-paced and exciting project that requires continuous innovation.” 

“In this collaborative effort, we’ve identified multiple modulators of protein structure and function,” said Alex Burgin, COO of Emerald BioStructures. “We look forward to supporting UCB in their structure-guided design and selection of clinical candidates over the next 24 months.”

In addition, Emerald and UCB have expanded their collaboration in structure-based drug discovery. “The expansion of our UCB collaboration is an important demonstration of the confidence that UCB has in the Emerald team, and is a clear validation of our fragment-based X-ray structure technology, especially when applied to challenging targets,” said Lance Stewart, CEO of Emerald BioStructures. The financial terms of the research fee, milestone and royalty-bearing relationship were not disclosed; however, the project supports multiple full-time researcher equivalents at Emerald.

About Emerald BioStructures:

Emerald BioStructures is an integrated gene-to-structure collaborative research organization specializing in drug discovery services. Emerald operates an efficient high-throughput platform leveraged for fragment-based lead discovery and structure-based drug design.  Our scientists provide enabling structural insight for breakthrough drugs that are highly selective and efficacious against chosen targets.

About UCB:

UCB, Brussels, Belgium (www.ucb.com) is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases of the immune system or of the central nervous system. With more than 8 000 people in about 40 countries, the company generated revenue of EUR 3.1 billion in 2009. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB).

Contact:

For Emerald BioStructures:

Lance Stewart, CEO

(206) 780-8911

lstewart@embios.com

For UCB: 

Nancy Nackaerts, External Communications, UCB
+32.473.864.414

nancy.nackaerts@ucb.com

For Media:

Douglas MacDougall or Jennifer Conrad

MacDougall Biomedical Communications

(781) 235-3060

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Emerald BioStructures today announced the appointment of Johan Pontin as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. He succeeds Lance Stewart, Ph.D., MBA, Emerald’s co-founder, who will now serve as Chair of the Company’s Advisory Board. Mr. Pontin has served as Emerald BioStructure’s Executive Chairman since November 2009, in which he has been responsible for leading the Company’s business strategy, and has over 15 years of broad international experience in strategic planning, venture and private equity investments, and corporate and business development.

“Working together with Lance, our joint leadership over the last two years has led Emerald to significantly expand its commercial business by providing first-class customer service. As a result, we have more than doubled revenues and tripled our customer base,” said Mr. Pontin. “I look forward to expanding my involvement in the company as we continue to improve and broaden our service offerings to better serve our customers.” Mr. Pontin previously served as Founding and Managing Partner of Pod Venture Partners, an international closely held private equity firm. He also previously served as Group Manager of Corporate Finance and Mergers and Acquisitions at ASSA ABLOY AB and as a management consultant in the Financial Advisory Services group at Coopers & Lybrand LLC. Mr. Pontin has a Bachelor’s degree from Carroll School of Management at Boston College and served as a PT Boat Commander in the Royal Swedish Navy.

Dr. Stewart co-founded Emerald in 1998 and led the growth of Emerald as a business unit within two publicly traded companies (MCLS and DCGN) and the successful spin out from deCODE genetics in November 2009. During his tenure, Dr. Stewart oversaw Emerald’s research that supported the discovery of eight investigational new drug molecules for clients’ projects. In addition to his ongoing advisory role, Dr. Stewart will continue to serve on behalf of Emerald as the Co-principal Investigator for the Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease (SSGCID), a five-year NIAID-funded collaboration that is solving approximately 500 protein crystal structures of novel infectious disease targets.

Dr. Stewart said: “It has been a tremendous privilege to watch our talented team provide highly enabling structural insights to support our clients’ drug discovery projects. Emerald has proven itself to be a technology leader in structural proteomics, from the creation of our innovative Fragments of Life lead discovery platform to the development of numerous automation solutions for gene-to-structure research. I look forward to contributing to the company as a close advisor.”

About Emerald BioStructures

Emerald BioStructures is an integrated gene-to-structure contract research organization that provides collaborative drug discovery services to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and government facilities. The company operates a high-throughput platform leveraged for fragment-based lead discovery, structure-based drug design, and elucidation of antibody-antigen structures. Emerald’s work provides a solid foundation for the discovery of highly selective, efficacious drugs. www.emeraldbiostructures.com

Contacts

For Emerald BioStructures:
Johan Pontin, 206-780-8900
or
For Media:
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Jennifer Conrad, 781-235-3060

Full Title:

New drug for Spinal Muscular Atrophy supported by 
Emerald BioStructures’ structure-based target elucidation

—First-ever therapy for deadly genetic disorder—

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Bainbridge Island, WA June 03, 2011. Another drug candidate supported by structural insight from Emerald BioStructures has reached clinical trials. The US Food and Drug Administration has granted approval to commence a Phase I safety study for RG3039, formerly called D157495, an investigational new drug (IND) being developed to treat Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).

The RG3039 IND is the third drug candidate based on Emerald insights to be announced in recent months and eighth IND overall for Emerald’s clients. No structural biology CRO has a more significant track record in bringing drugs to clinic. “Structure-based insights are key to the rapid development of therapeutic agents,” said Lance Stewart, Ph.D., CEO of Emerald BioStructures.

The discovery of RG3039 by Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) was aided by Emerald’s three-dimensional structures of C5-substituted Quinazolines bound to DcpS, an enzyme involved in gene expression.This work is documented in the peer-reviewed paper, “DcpS as a therapeutic target for spinal muscular atrophy.”

Structure based drug design at Emerald

Emerald BioStructures is a leading Contract Research Organization (CRO) dedicated to determining three-dimensional structures of macromolecules that have the potential to become important drug targets. Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) used the three-dimensional structures discovered at Emerald as the basis of this novel drug, which has gone to clinic with development partner RepliGen. “Emerald’s structural biology services informed our target assessment and helped us guide lead optimization strategies,” said Jill Jarecki, Ph.D., Research Director of Families of SMA. “This approach helped us efficiently determine the druggability of our targets.”

First-ever drug to treat Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA)

SMA is a genetic disorder affecting about 1 in 6,000 births per year and is the leading genetic cause of death in children under the age of two.SMA is caused by deletion or mutation of both copies of the SMN1 gene, which produces an essential protein known as SMN.

Emerald’s work contributed to the discovery of a binding molecule, DcpS, that represents a novel therapeutic target for modulating gene expression. Emerald helped to show that the inhibition of DcpS can negate the harmful effects of the missing or mutated SMN1 gene.

About Emerald BioStructures                       

Emerald BioStructures is an integrated gene-to-structure contract research organization that provides collaborative drug discovery services to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and government facilities. The company operates a high-throughput platform leveraged for fragment-based lead discovery and structure-based drug design. Emerald’s work provides a solid foundation for the discovery of highly selective, efficacious drugs. www.emeraldbiostructures.com

About Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Families of SMA is a non-profit 501(c)3 tax exempt organization with 30 Chapters throughout the United States and over 70,000 members and supporters. Families of SMA funds and directs the leading SMA research programs. The successful results and progress from basic research to drug discovery programs to clinical trials provide real hope for families and patients. www.curesma.org

Contact

For Emerald BioStructures:
Lance Stewart, CEO
(206) 780-8911

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View an archive presentaiton of this webinar.

Bainbridge Island WA, May 11, 2011 — Emerald BioStructures scientist Thomas Edwards will demonstrate a straightforward and powerful method of determining phases for macromolecular crystal structures in an upcoming webinar sponsored by X-ray equipment supplier Rigaku. This method reduces the need for laborious derivative-labeled protein preparation, crystallization re-optimization, or synchrotron radiation. Instead, it uses existing native crystals and an innovative process called iodide ion single-wavelength anomalous dispersion (SAD). 

The webinar entitled “SAD phasing at rotating anode wavelengths using iodide ions” will be held May 12, 2011. Registration can be found at the Rigaku web site.

“Iodide ions bind to numerous hydrophobic and positively charged patches on protein surfaces, facilitating phase determination using the strong anomalous signal of iodide at rotating anode wavelengths,” says Edwards.

Edwards and colleagues at Emerald have used this technique across a wide range of crystallization conditions with a >90% success rate in at least twenty cases. Findings have been reported in the Journal of Structural and Functional Genomics.  The webinar also presents information on the combined use of SAD and molecular replacement (MR) for targets with weak MR solutions.

About Emerald BioStructures 

 Emerald BioStructures is an integrated gene-to-structure contract research organization that provides collaborative drug discovery services to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and government facilities. The company operates a high-throughput platform leveraged for fragment-based lead discovery and structure-based drug design. Emerald’s work provides a solid foundation for the discovery of highly selective, efficacious drugs.  

Contacts: 

Emerald BioStructures:

Lance Stewart, CEO 

(206) 780-8911

—GSNOR has emerged as an attractive therapeutic target for this inflammatory disease—

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Bainbridge Island, WA May 04, 2011. AnEmerald BioStructures structure-based drug design collaboration has once again contributed to a drug compound recently approved for clinical development. The drug candidate, N6022, has proven to be effective as a potential agent for the treatment of acute asthma.The March, 2011 issue of American Chemical Society Medicinal Chemistry Letters documents this work in a paper titled “Discovery of S-Nitrosoglutathione Reductase Inhibitors: Potential Agents for the Treatment of Asthma and Other Inflammatory Diseases.”

 Emerald’s successful model for drug design

This drug candidate represents the successful application of the Emerald structural biology approach to drug development.“The 2.5 year Emerald-N30 Pharma relationship demonstrates the effectiveness of Emerald’s structure-based drug design capabilities in quickly developing novel drug compounds for inflammatory diseases,” said Larry Chun, Senior Research Scientist at Emerald BioStructures, one of the paper’s co-authors. Thedrug candidate,N6022, has been proven to be potent, selective, and efficacious in animal models of inflammatory disease and has recently begun clinical trials in humans.

Structure-based optimization of potent small molecule inhibitors

This peer-reviewed paper is co-authored by scientists from Emerald BioStructures and N30 Pharmaceuticals. It details the structure-based optimization  of potent small molecule inhibitors of the enzyme S-nitrosoglutathione reductase (GSNOR). GSNOR breaks down S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO), and as such is an important regulator of the body’s pool of GSNO. In the lung, GSNO likely plays an important role in maintaining normal respiratory function through its influence on bronchial tone and anti-inflammatory effects.

In asthmatics, GSNOR up-regulation and decreased GSNO levels have been shown to contribute to respiratory disease, and genetic variants of GSNOR have been correlated with disease susceptibility and poor response to therapy. GSNO has also been found to be important in the gastrointestinal and cardiovascular systems, as well as the regulating the control of breathing.

About Emerald BioStructures                                                           

Emerald BioStructures is an integrated gene-to-structure contract research organization that provides collaborative drug discovery services to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and government facilities. The company operates a high-throughput platform leveraged for fragment-based lead discovery and structure-based drug design. Emerald’s work provides a solid foundation for the discovery of highly selective, efficacious drugs. www.emeraldbiostructures.com

About N30 Pharmaceuticals

N30 Pharma is a privately held biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Boulder, Colorado.  N30 Pharma focuses on the discovery and development of proprietary drugs that provide therapeutic advantage over current treatment for major human diseases such as asthma, COPD and IBD. The Company's strategy is to focus upon discovery research and early-stage clinical development, and then establish one or more partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies to further the advancement of its lead clinical candidates. http://www.n30pharma.com

Contact:

For Emerald BioStructures:

Lance Stewart, CEO

(206) 780-8911