BioWorld International Correspondent

LONDON - Inpharmatica Ltd. signed its first deal in Japan, a three-year, multimillion-pound contract giving Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. access to Biopendium, a system for translating genome sequence data into drug targets.

Inpharmatica CEO Malcolm Weir told BioWorld International, "The Japanese market didn't leap rapidly onto genomics, and they may not be regretting it because it turns out protein targets, not gene sequences, are where it is at."

Inpharmatica, based in London, secured the deal with Tokyo-based Daiichi through its Japanese partner, Pharmadesign, which will provide training and support for the system.

Biopendium is Inpharmatica's predictive system that makes it possible to take a gene sequence and infer the 3-dimensional structure of the protein for which it codes, determine possible functions, and estimate its druggability.

"What we do is rooted in the rigor of protein structure, but you don't have to have a full experimental structure," Weir said. "To solve all protein [structures] up front is unrealistic and, despite advances, this is still a bottleneck."

Existing Biopendium subscribers include Pfizer Inc., Genentech Inc. and Serono SA. Weir said, "In terms of existing customers and our own in-house use, Biopendium is delivering very good value."

Inpharmatica is waiting for a change in the market that would allow it to float. Any money raised in an initial public offering would be used to further the development of proprietary targets.

"We're a flotation candidate, but the market being what it is, we are not in a rush," Weir said. "We've got enough money to last until 2004, so we are very relaxed about not floating at the moment."

Inpharmatica was formed in 1998 around intellectual property from University College London. In July 2001, it raised £31.25 million (US$49.2 million) in a second round of funding. The company has about 20 targets it is validating and moving into screening.

"With some, we know what diseases they are involved in," he said. "We will pick our favorite targets on the basis of druggability and then map them onto disease pathways. We will get attrition, but it should still leave us with some good targets, and be more productive than traditional methods."

Later this year Inpharmatica plans to launch PharmaCarta, offering its software as a service for clients that do not want to run Biopendium in house. It also plans to expand the functionality of the software to include in silico chemistry, the company said.