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Recognized as a global leader in novel small molecule drug discovery, Astex Pharmaceuticals™ employs a cutting-edge platform that rapidly delivers customized, high-quality drug leads with enhanced therapeutic potential.

A major challenge in conventional drug discovery and development is having to sort through the large number of hits derived through conventional screening.

Pyramid: Fragment-Based Drug Discovery

Pyramid defines a process by which a range of high-throughput biophysical and computational techniques are used to experimentally characterize the interactions of very low molecular weight compounds (fragments) with their target proteins.

  • Designed to reduce attrition during drug development
  • Carefully monitors key characteristics such as ligand efficiency and in vivo activity during lead optimization
  • Ensures delivery of potent, selective and low molecular weight compounds with optimized drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic properties
  • Generates higher quality leads by optimizing key drug properties earlier in the process

Pyramid has been successfully applied by Astex Pharmaceuticals across a wide variety of therapeutic targets and disease areas, including those regarded as “intractable” by the pharmaceutical industry.

Pyramid has been used successfully to generate lead compounds for the potential treatment of cancer, viral infections, inflammation and Alzheimer’s disease.