By Karen Young

Athersys Inc. and 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals Inc. entered a collaboration to discover, develop and commercialize small-molecule drugs by screening against targets derived from the G protein-coupled receptor family of proteins.

Athersys, of Cleveland, will supply the drug targets, and the companies will jointly select a number of biologically validated targets. Any small-molecule drug candidates identified as a result of the collaboration will be co-developed and co-commercialized on a 50-50 basis, said Kathryn Garvey, director of strategic planning and investor relations for Athersys.

Garvey would not disclose financial terms, or the therapeutic areas in which the collaboration will be focused. She also said that it is too early to say when the collaboration might produce lead compounds.

Jim Kovach, Athersys¿ executive vice president and chief operating officer, said that from his company¿s perspective, it allows Athersys to ¿forward integrate¿ and to obtain product and co-development rights for certain small molecules developed through 3DP¿s chemistry capabilities and Athersys¿ functional genomics technologies.

¿We¿ll also get compounds that we own outright,¿ Kovach said.

Those compounds will then form the basis of medicinal chemistry that Athersys ultimately will undertake.

¿Our business model is to initially do this through strategic partnerships,¿ Kovach said.

Garvey noted, however, that it always has been the company¿s long-term strategy to develop into a full-service pharmaceutical firm.

Another benefit of the collaboration for Athersys, Kovach said, is that it gives the company access to complementary technologies. The collaboration will rely on Athersys¿ RAGE (Random Activation of Gene Expression) technology to provide access to cell lines that express the selected drug targets and screen compounds using 3DP¿s DiscoverWorks technology, which can lead rapidly to the development and optimization of lead compounds against the validated targets.

Kovach said Athersys biologists will be very active with 3DP chemists and allow Athersys to move into forward integration in a structured way.

¿We see this as a wonderful way to leverage into our next phase of development as a company,¿ Garvey said, noting that in other collaborations, privately held Athersys gets fees in return for access to its technology.

David U¿Prichard, CEO of 3DP, of Yardley, Pa., said the collaboration with Athersys is ¿a great deal¿ for his company, noting that 3DP is a pipeline company first and foremost.

¿A major part of our current strategy is to add value to our pipeline by starting a number of new projects that are based on proprietary targets,¿ U¿Prichard said. ¿So, we have had discussions with a number of functional genomics companies, and Athersys came to the top of our short list, because their technology platform is very high quality and very complementary to ours.¿

U¿Prichard said the collaboration is likely to be successful because the focus is on G protein-coupled receptors.

¿About 25 percent of our combinatorial chemistry libraries and chemistry platform is geared to GPCRs, so we think we have an excellent chance of getting small-molecule leads,¿ U¿Prichard said.

3DP¿s stock (NASDAQ:DDDP) rose 30 cents Monday to close at $7.90.