Tokyo-based Xeureka and UBE Corporation have announced a new joint research agreement targeting small-molecule drug discovery in oncology.

 

The collaboration will leverage Xeureka’s cutting-edge computational drug discovery technologies, including its proprietary Free Energy Perturbation program, Xeureka FEP, to identify novel compounds acting on cancer-related target molecules specified by UBE. The goal: creating next-generation drug candidates.

 

“Prior to this joint research collaboration, Xeureka and UBE confirmed the applicability and accuracy of Xeureka FEP for the research targets,” the companies said. “Based on these results, the two companies agreed to proceed with the joint research collaboration.”

 

Under the agreement, Xeureka will receive an upfront payment from UBE and will be eligible for milestone payments tied to future research progress.

 

Free Energy Perturbation is a statistical mechanics-based computational method used to calculate the change in free energy upon binding between a ligand — a molecule that specifically binds to a biomolecule — and a protein, enabling highly accurate predictions of compound activity.