OpenBench and Tavros Therapeutics Announce Collaboration to Pursue First-in-class Cancer Target

DURHAM, N.C. and SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Tavros Therapeutics, a privately held biotechnology company discovering first-in-class cancer therapies, and OpenBench, an emerging leader in AI-enabled small molecule discovery, today announced a collaboration in which OpenBench will identify novel, potent antagonists against an undisclosed cancer target that was identified by Tavros’s proprietary functional genomics platform.

Under the terms of the agreement, OpenBench will receive payment for the identification and experimental confirmation of novel chemotypes that meet Tavros’s potency and developability criteria. In exchange, Tavros gains exclusive access to OpenBench’s proprietary screening technology with respect to the promising cancer target. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“Tavros is eager to identify quality hit molecules against this high-impact, first-in-class target, and we think OpenBench’s virtual screening platform is perfectly suited to accelerate our drug development timelines. We hope to continue this partnership and take on other promising drug targets identified by Tavros’s proprietary functional genomics discovery platform,” said Tavros CEO Eoin McDonnell.

“We are excited to enrich Tavros’s efforts to make a breakthrough therapeutic discovery addressing a serious clinical need,” said OpenBench CTO James Yoder. “We feel confident that the partnership will bear fruit and the OpenBench virtual screening platform will identify promising novel chemical material that maximizes the likelihood of Tavros’s success in lead optimization, translation, and clinical development campaigns.”

OpenBench adds Tavros to a growing list of partners that includes HemoShear Therapeutics and two other undisclosed U.S.-based biotechnology companies.

About Tavros Therapeutics
Tavros Therapeutics is a private, venture-backed preclinical biotechnology company that employs an integrated high-throughput functional genomics discovery platform to uncover unique weaknesses in cancer cells that are exposed by drug treatment. These context-specific vulnerabilities point Tavros to a clear clinical path for novel drug development with the knowledge of predictive biomarkers and optimal drug combinations that improve therapeutic response. Tavros uses this dynamic discovery engine to identify first-in-class drug targets with a clear path forward to the clinic to get the right drugs to the right patients, faster. Tavros is located in Durham, North Carolina. For more information, please visit https://www.tavrostherapeutics.com/.

About OpenBench
OpenBench, Inc. is a results-driven molecular discovery company that partners with small molecule biotechnology organizations to enrich preclinical discovery with its proprietary AI-enabled virtual screening platform. OpenBench breaks through the noise in AI for drug discovery by offering a results-driven solution whereby OpenBench partners only pay after molecules have been experimentally confirmed to meet potency and developability criteria. OpenBench is currently engaged in four industry partnerships across a range of therapeutic areas. To learn more, contact OpenBench at discovery@opnbnch.com or visit https://www.opnbnch.com to sign up for a hit discovery consultation.

Media contact:
Jim Thompson
contact@opnbnch.com

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SOURCE OpenBench; Tavros Therapeutics