Biohaven and FCCDC form alliance in early stage drug discovery research

Under this agreement, Biohaven will provide $1.5M in research funding to FCCDC to advance a lead prodrug candidate to IND filing.

FCCDC is a Pennsylvania based drug discovery company with exceptional medicinal chemistry, target validation, pharmacology and chemical biology capabilities. FCCDC is located within the 112,000 square foot Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center (PBC), and is affiliated with the Pennsylvania Drug Discovery Institute.

FCCDC has approximately 20 staff members and over 300 years of cumulative drug discovery experience ranging from big pharma (Johnson & Johnson, Merck) to numerous biotech companies. FCCDC has received over $18.9 M in research funding since its inception. FCCDC is fully equipped to meet chemistry synthesis and analytic needs.

FCCDC is led by CEO Dr. Allen Reitz who has over 33 years of demonstrated accomplishment as a medicinal chemist in the pharmaceutical industry, including nearly 26 years with Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Reitz led the medicinal chemistry research effort at the Spring House Pennsyvlania site of Johnson & Johnson in the area of central nervous system therapeutics for both psychiatry and neurology. Dr. Reitz has over 140 scientific publications and 60 issued U.S. patents, and is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry.

He has extensive experience in project and portfolio management, target validation, hit triage, hit to lead and lead optimization medicinal chemistry, eADME profiling, and preclinical candidate selection. He is also Adjunct Professor at Drexel University College of Medicine, holds an Executive Masters in Technology Management from the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton, Penn Engineering), and is a Moore Fellow in the Management of Technology (U. Penn.).

Portage CEO and Biohaven executive chairman Declan Doogan said: "This strategic alliance with FCCDC ensures that our intellectual property pertaining to prodrugs of certain glutamate modulating agents will be advanced expeditiously and in the most capable hands. Dr. Reitz is a proven leader in medicinal chemistry and working with his team adds significant value to our drug development enterprise. Biohaven is now poised to execute on drug development programs from the chemistry labs to the clinic."

FCCDC CEO Allen Reitz said: "Combining our expertise in the advancement of early drug candidates with Biohaven’s late stage clinical development experience represents the ideal partnership. For example, this alliance will ensure that this family of glutamate modulating prodrugs will quickly be brought to patients in the clinic."