PERTH, Australia, 15 April, 2010 – Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd, a pre-clinical stage product company developing a pipeline of ’best in class’ lead products with highly specific activity and with reduced risk of off-target effects, today announced that it has entered into a research agreement with Takeda Cambridge Limited, a UK based subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Japan’s largest pharmaceutical company.

Under the agreement, Dimerix will use its GPCR-HIT platform and leading insights into the ability of G-Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) to form complexes, called heteromers, to work with undisclosed GPCRs of interest to Takeda.

“Dimerix’ GPCR-HIT platform enables the development of more specific drugs that take into account the signaling profile of GPCRs acting in heteromeric complexes.” said Tim Grogan, CEO of Dimerix. “We are very pleased to be working with Takeda to apply our GPCR-HIT technology. Our interactions with Takeda have been very impressive.”

“We are pleased to enter into this agreement to apply Dimerix’ GPCR-HIT platform,” said Mark Carlton, President of Takeda Cambridge Limited. “This work will continue to build on our knowledge of key GPCRs, which are drug targets of major significance.”

About GPCRs and Dimerix’ GPCR-HIT Platform:
Dimerix’ proprietary G-Protein Coupled Receptor Heteromer Identification Technology (GPCR-HIT) platform is used to identify complexes formed by GPCRs known as GPCR heteromers. The platform is also used to screen for and to profile compounds that interact with GPCR heteromers specifically or allosterically. Use of GPCR-HIT significantly expands the scope of GPCR-based drug discovery and development through the identification of compounds having biased intracellular signaling that is mediated through the GPCR heteromers. The technology can be applied at various stages of drug development including screening for leads and profiling of compounds, including profiling for potential toxicity or other side effects of compounds that are believed to act through monomeric GPCRs. For further details see: Pfleger KD: New Technology to Identify Potential Novel G-Protein Coupled Receptor Heterodimers and Heterodimer-specific Compounds. J Biomol Screen 2009, 14:890.

About Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd:
Dimerix is a Perth-based drug discovery company focused on developing pharmaceutical products targeting heteromers or complexes of GPCRs. Approximately 40% of all currently marketed pharmaceutical products worldwide target GPCRs. Dimerix’ GPCR-HIT platform, originally acquired from The University of Western Australia, is based on extensive research from the laboratories of scientists Professor Karin Eidne and Associate Professor Kevin Pfleger at the Laboratory for Molecular Endocrinology at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research. The company’s drug discovery and development portfolio is currently focused on programs for oncology, metabolic, cardiovascular and inflammatory disease indications. Dimerix is privately held. Additional information about Dimerix is available through its corporate website, www.dimerix.com.

About Takeda Cambridge Limited:
Located in Cambridge, UK, Takeda Cambridge Limited has established world-class target identification, validation and drug discovery capabilities. The company has developed a promising pipeline of novel drug discovery targets and compounds in key areas of unmet medical need.

About Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited:
Located in Osaka, Japan, Takeda is a research-based global company with its main focus on pharmaceuticals. As the largest pharmaceutical company in Japan and one of the global leaders of the industry, Takeda is committed to striving toward better health for individuals and progress in medicine. Additional information about Takeda is available through its corporate website, www.takeda.com.
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Contact:

Tim Grogan, Chief Executive Officer
Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd
Ph: +61 (0) 438 655 452
E: tim.grogan@dimerix.com
www.dimerix.com

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Download in PDF format: Dimerix – Takeda Announcement 15 April 2010

Drug Development Technology

- Developing Next Generation Drugs Targeting GPCR Heterodimers –

PERTH, Western Australia. – February 24, 2009 – Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd announced that it has closed an investment round in excess of $1.4 million.  Dimerix will apply funding to expand its contractual profiling of drugs against GPCRs that form heterodimers, in addition to continuing its own development programs.

Dimerix has developed a novel cell-based assay technology to identify molecules acting through pairs of different GPCRs, known as GPCR heterodimers.   The company has secured early commercial revenues for applications of its technology by profiling compounds against heterodimer targets.  Dimerix is also progressing collaborations and internal programs to develop drug combinations that act synergistically through GPCR heterodimer complexes and screen compound libraries against heterodimer targets.

The investment round was lead by clients of Candor Financial Management (CFM) and included additional sophisticated biotechnology investors.  Andrew Hector of CFM commented, “This is an opportunity to support the commercialisation of innovative technologies developed in Western Australia.  The commitment of the Dimerix team, its early revenue generation and the arm’s length technology collaborations were important aspects of this funding round.”

Dimerix CEO, Dr James Williams added “Drugs targeting GPCRs account for 40% of all marketed drugs and Dimerix offers a new approach for GPCR drug discovery.  The GPCR- HIT platform is enabling Dimerix to generate early revenue profiling marketed and development compounds for GPCR heterodimer effects.  This has immediate application across a broad range of indications, including cardiovascular, CNS, respiratory and metabolic diseases.  Understanding GPCR heterodimer effects unlocks the potential for better drugs with fewer side effects, and enables drugs to be better tailored to patient populations.”

A recent commentary published in Nature Chemical Biology entitled Building a new conceptual framework for receptor heteromers* overviews the emergence of GPCR heterodimers and the importance of tools for drug discovery involving GPCR heterodimer targets.  Dimerix technology inventor, Dr Kevin Pfleger is a co-author on this commentary.

Mr Tim Grogan of Fusion Life Sciences has taken on the Chairman role continuing his contributions to Dimerix.  Dimerix’s GPCR-heterodimer identification technology was invented at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR) and Centre for Medical Research, University of Western Australia. Ownership of the technology has been assigned to Dimerix.

About GPCR-HIT Technology
Dimerix’s proprietary G protein-couped receptor heterodimer identification technology (GPCR-HIT) platform can identify new compounds that affect GPCR heterodimers specifically or allosterically.  This significantly expands the scope of GPCR based drug development.  The technology can be applied at various stages of drug development including screening for leads and profiling of compounds, including profiling for potential toxicity or other side effects of compounds that are believed to act through monomeric GPCRs.

About Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd

Dimerix is an emerging biopharmaceutical company commercialising technology that enables the development of new, highly specific drugs with fewer side effects which act through  GPCR heterodimers.   Drugs targeting GPCRs include combination therapies that act synergistically through GPCR heterodimers.  GPCRs are critically involved in a wide variety of serious illnesses, including inflammation, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, cancer, and CNS disorders.

For more information visit www.dimerix.com.

Contact:
James Williams, CEO, Dimerix
+61 (0)409 050 519
james@dimerix.com

*Ferre et al. Nature Chemical Biology 5, 131 – 134 (2009)

Dimerix is pleased to announce that it closed a fundraising on 29 June 2007 with Western Australian venture capital funds, Stone Ridge Ventures Pty Ltd and the Foundation IIF Fund.

The fundraising supports Dimerix current collaboration with The Chinese National Center for Drug Screening (NCDS) to apply Dimerix’ proprietary “GPCRHit” heterodimer profiling tool to high-throughput screening (HTS) of heterodimer targets. Under this collaboration, the initial phase of technology transfer has been completed with the first HTS against a heterodimer target planned during the current quarter ending September 2007.

Almost half of all approved pharmaceuticals act through a receptor class known as G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR) with more than one quarter of the top 200 best selling drugs targeting GPCRs. Until recently these drugs
were assumed to act on single, monomeric receptors. Substantial data has now demonstrated that GPCRs can act as complexes, such as GPCR heterodimers. There are currently no commercially available tools to identify
compounds that target heterodimers.

Dimerix GPCRHit technology is a patented cell-based method that can identify ligand-dependent activation of GPCR heterodimers. The system has been demonstrated in various GPCR systems to confirm GPCR heterodimer
pairs postulated in the scientific literature and to identify novel heterodimers. The National Center for Drug Screening has world-class expertise and infrastructure in developing and implementing high-throughput screening assays at an industrial scale.

About Stone Ridge Ventures Pty Ltd and Foundation IIF Fund

Stone Ridge Ventures is a venture capital fund manager focused on building innovative technology companies based on Australian invented technologies. With a team that has built their own companies with the help of venture capital and exited those companies in the US, Stone Ridge Ventures understands the challenges of seeding, building and managing high growth technology businesses.

Stone Ridge Ventures has over $60M under management in four separate investment funds which address all stages of company development. The Foundation Innovation Investment Fund (IIF) is a $35 million fund that is
focused on investing in early stage ventures from start up to early revenues. The fund was established in 2001 and currently has 8 investee companies.

About Dimerix

Dimerix is expanding the potential for new and existing GPCR drugs by deciphering interactions between their receptor targets. Dimerix was spun-out from the University of Western Australia leveraging unique technology developed at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR). Dimerix is using its GPCRHit assay to identify GPCR interactions (heterodimerisation). This new information, coupled with existing knowledge about marketed drugs and their targets, will be used to develop improved side-effect profiles for existing GPCR drugs and will also allow repositioning of existing drugs to treat different conditions. The new collaboration expands our focus to enable identification of potential drugs for heterodimer targets.

Further Information

Stone Ridge Ventures Pty Ltd
Foundation IIF Fund
Dr Rob Newman
Investment Director
Tel: +61 (08) 9322 2360
E-mail: rob@stoneridgeventures.com
Website: www.stoneridgeventures.com

Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd
Dr James Williams,
Chief Executive Officer, Dimerix
Bioscience
Tel: +61 (0) 409 050 519
E-mail: james@dimerix.com
Website: http://www.dimerix.com

The Chinese National Center for Drug Screening (NCDS) and Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd (Dimerix), a private Australian biotechnology today announced a collaboration to bring the NCDS expertise and infrastructure to enable Dimerix’ proprietary “GPCRHit” heterodimer profiling tool to be applied for high-throughput screening of heterodimer targets.

Almost half of all approved pharmaceuticals act through a receptor class known as G- protein coupled receptors (GPCR) with more than one quarter of the top 200 best selling drugs targeting GPCRs. Until recently these drugs were assumed to act on single, monomeric receptors. Substantial data has now demonstrated that GPCRs can act as complexes, such as GPCR heterodimers. There are currently no commercially available tools to identify compounds that target heterodimers.

Dimerix GPCRHit technology is a patented cell-based method that can identify ligand- dependent activation of GPCR heterodimers. The technology has been demonstrated in various GPCR systems to confirm GPCR heterodimer pairs postulated in the scientific literature and to identify novel heterodimers. The National Center for Drug Screening has world-class expertise and infrastructure in developing and implementing high-throughput screening assays at an industrial scale.

Professor Ming-Wei Wang, Director of NCDS, said “our collaboration will establish the first assay system that is capable of high-throughput screening of compound libraries against GPCR heterodimer targets. We are pleased to be collaborating with Dimerix to create the next generation of GPCR drugs.”

Dr James Williams, Dimerix CEO, commented “GPCR heterodimers present a rich opportunity for enhancement of existing GPCR drugs, and for discovery and development of new GPCR drugs. The National Center for Drug Screening brings world-leading capability and infrastructure to an Australian innovation and the synergies realised will result in significant benefits to both organisations.”

About The National Center for Drug Screening, China

The National Center for Drug Screening was created in 1997 through a joint investment of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Municipality Government. It is the only national center in China specialised in screening for new drugs and an essential component in innovative drug research. Over the years, it has demonstrated its leadership through co-operations with leading pharmaceutical companies globally and its own innovative programs include the recent identification of a compound that controls diabetes in mice which may point to more user-friendly treatments for the most common type of human diabetes.

About Dimerix

Dimerix is expanding the potential for new and existing GPCR drugs by deciphering interactions between their receptor targets. Dimerix was spun-out from the University of Western Australia leveraging unique technology developed at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR). Dimerix is using its GPCRHit assay to identify GPCR interactions (heterodimerisation). This new information, coupled with existing knowledge about marketed drugs and their targets, will be used to develop improved side-effect profiles for existing GPCR drugs and will also allow repositioning of existing drugs to treat different conditions. The new collaboration expands our focus to enable identification of potential drugs for heterodimer targets. Investors in Dimerix include Offspring Ventures Pty Ltd and venture capitalists Foundation Capital and the Murdoch-Westscheme Enterprise Partnership with management support from technology commercialisation company Tessitura Pty Ltd.

Further Information:

The National Center for Drug Screening, China
Dr Ming-Wei Wang, Director, The National
Center for Drug Screening
Tel: +86 21 50800598
E-mail: mwwang@mail.shcnc.ac.cn
Website: http://www.screen.org.cn
Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd
Dr James Williams, Chief Executive
Officer, Dimerix Bioscience
Tel: +61 (0) 409 050 519
E-mail: james@dimerix.com
Website: http://www.dimerix.com

Dimerix announces that it has acquired rights to a new technology from the University of Western Australia. The technology inventors, A/Professor Karin Eidne, Dr Kevin Pfleger and co-workers based in the Laboratory for Molecular Endocrinology at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research have successfully tested a novel cellular assay (GPCR-HIT) on a number of GPCR heterodimer combinations.

Dimerix Bioscience have announced Board and Management changes with the appointment of Dr James Williams as CEO and Executive Director, and Dr Tony Mason as Scientific Advisor.

James and Tony bring significant scientific and commercial experience to the Dimerix team.