Grünenthal Press Releases 2016

Drug Discovery Collaboration between Grünenthal and Axxam

Grünenthal capitalizes on Axxam’s drug discovery platform and expertise to identify small molecule lead structures for its early pipeline in pain and inflammation

Aachen, Germany and Milano, Italy, March 3, 2016: Grünenthal and Axxam announced today that they have entered into an integrated collaboration. The objective is to discover novel small molecule lead structures for the development of pain and inflammation therapeutics by combining Axxam’s drug discovery platform with Grünenthal’s expertise on emerging and innovative biological pathways and targets.

The collaboration aims to support Grünenthal’s objective to identify compounds that could help patients with pain or inflammatory diseases, a focus of the family owned research-based pharmaceutical company. Axxam will apply its integrated and innovative early drug discovery platform by combining it with its extensive expertise for innovative biological pathways and targets. This will include assay development, screening activities, Hit finding and follow up activities.

“We are very pleased that Grünenthal has selected Axxam as a strategic partner for its early drug discovery efforts to support their core therapeutic areas pain and inflammation. We are looking forward to working closely together with Grünenthal”, said Dr. Stefan Lohmer, President and Chief Executive Officer at Axxam.

“Based on our positive experience with Axxam for many years, we have selected this company as our preferred partner for this strategic collaboration. At Grünenthal, a company dedicated to innovation for pain treatment and related fields like inflammation, we have a proven track record for business partnering and for bringing projects successfully to the market. This collaboration will be an important milestone on our way to become a specialty player in growth indications with a high unmet medical need”, said Dr. Henning Steinhagen, Senior Vice President and Head of Drug Discovery, Grünenthal GmbH.

About Grünenthal

The Grünenthal Group is an independent, family-owned, international research-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in Aachen, Germany. We are an entrepreneurial specialist delivering true benefits to patients. By sustainably investing in research and development above the industrial average, we are committing to innovation in order to treat unmet medical needs and bring value-adding products to markets. Grünenthal is a fully integrated research & development company with a long track record of bringing innovative pain treatments and state-of-the-art technologies to patients.

Altogether, the Grünenthal Group is present in 32 countries with affiliates in Europe, Australia, Latin America and the US. Grünenthal products are sold in more than 155 countries and approx. 5,300 employees are working for the Grünenthal Group worldwide. In 2014, Grünenthal achieved revenues of € 1.154 bn. More information: www.grunenthal.com.

About Axxam SpA

Axxam SpA is a privately owned contract research and discovery company located at the Science Park Openzone in Bresso (Milan, Italy). The Company is a leading provider of integrated discovery services for the entire Life Sciences industries as: Pharmaceutical, Crop protection, Animal health, Cosmetics and Nutrition. Axxam has a strong expertise across a broad range of discovery disciplines and innovative technologies, including: assay development, compound management, HTS, hit identification and hit validation. Axxam is also engaged in developing novel innovative therapies for diseases with a high unmet medical need. For more information, please visit www.axxam.com.

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