Astex Pharmaceuticals – a company that concentrates on the development of small molecule therapeutics – has formed a partnership with the Medicines Discovery Institute, Cardiff University (MDI).

The link-up is a multi-year, multimillion pound drug discovery research collaboration, which aims to identify new drugs to treat neurodegenerative diseases.
It will bring together researchers, such as Dr Emyr Lloyd-Evans and Dr Helen Waller-Evans from Cardiff University, Astex’s fragment-based drug discovery platform and the drug discovery capabilities of the MDI.

Together the teams will concentrate on establishing compounds that modulate lysosomal activity as a system of developing potential treatments for neurodegenerative diseases with high unmet need.

As part of the agreement, scientists at the MDI and Astex will undergo drug discovery research against a chosen lysosomal target with a view to identifying and optimising compounds that modulate its activity.

Meanwhile, Cardiff University will receive committed R&D funding and is eligible to receive regulatory payments if drug compounds progress.

Dr David Rees, chief scientific officer at Astex, is optimistic about the partnership: “We are very excited about this opportunity to work with Cardiff University, MDI. Astex has a long tradition of effective collaborations between academia and industry, which we believe is critical for the successful translation of basic science.”

Aardex Group – a company focused on remote research and healthcare adherence – and Cambridge Cognition have confirmed a partnership to provide monitoring during hybrid and decentralised clinical trials (DCTs).

The link-up will involve the incorporation of Aardex’s MEMS platform, which specialises in dosing capture and an analytics system, with Cambridge Cognition’s Clinpal DCT platform, which includes a video consultation, electronic informed consent and a research database.

An important element of the collaborative process is capturing dosing digitally through MEMS-connected medication adherence, which can then flag concerning medicine-taking behaviour in real-time situations.

Data resulting from this is subsequently synched directly to the Clinpal research database, which also collects data from sites, participants and laboratories. This vital integration allows sites to access all study data, including adherence information, in a central location. Such approaches have already been adopted by Trials@Home, whose members include Sanofi and Pfizer, and used during the RADIAL study.

This phase 4 clinical trial comprises around 600 people with type 2 diabetes across 63 sites.

Matthew Stork, chief executive officer at Cambridge Cognition, explained: “We are excited to partner with Aardex Group delivering the best possible scientific data for clinical trials by monitoring and managing patient adherence.”