PARIS - The "combinatorial chemistry" consortium set up in 1996 has just embarked on the second stage of its collaborative research program, starting with a meeting of all participants in Paris earlier this week.

The collaboration was initiated by Molecular Simulations Inc., a subsidiary of Pharmacopeia Inc., and the other members of the consortium at the outset included the French drug discovery company Cerep S.A. as well as Pharmacia & Upjohn, Monsanto, Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, ArQule and Teijin. For the second phase, two more companies have joined the group - DuPont and Organon.

The companies got together to share the fruits of their respective research into the development and validation of computer tools dedicated to the conception and definition of combinatorial libraries. According to the CEO of Cerep, Thierry Jean, the collaboration has made a significant contribution to the development of the company's molecular modeling capability, a computer-assisted simulation tool that generates data for the design of chemical libraries focused on compounds whose structures and characteristics are similar to those of an initially selected candidate.

BioWorld International was told that the second phase of the collaboration will focus on computer simulation and the development of software tools for comparing lead compounds with computer-generated simulations.