Fujitsu America BioSciences Group Announces Agreement with NeurAxon for BioMedCAChe™ Automated Docking Software with ActiveSite™ Module

The BioSciences Group of Fujitsu America, Inc., a worldwide leader in providing innovative and reliable solutions to experimental scientists, today announced a licensing agreement for its BioMedCAChe suite of automated docking and molecular modeling software with NeurAxon, Inc., a Canadian company specializing in drug development for pain and central nervous system (CNS) disorders. The deal includes provision of the BioSciences Group’s ActiveSite module for designing effective small molecule inhibitors of protein targets.

“Our solutions are designed with the needs of end-user experimental scientists in mind, to give them direct access to powerful modeling capabilities at the desktop level,” said Dr. Michael J. McManus, Vice President of the BioSciences Group at Fujitsu America. He added, “We are very pleased that NeurAxon has selected BioMedCAChe software with the ActiveSite module as their docking solution.”

Dr. Shawn Maddaford, Director of Chemistry of NeurAxon, Inc., said, “In looking at ways to expedite our drug discovery process, one key area we focused on was making molecular visualization, manipulation and protein-ligand docking more efficient and cost effective.” He added, “We selected Fujitsu’s BioMedCAChe suite, with its ActiveSite docking package, for their proven performance in these areas, to give our medicinal chemists a powerful desktop solution which allows them to quickly design and screen new ligands.”

The Fujitsu BioMedCAChe suite provides powerful tools to speed the drug discovery process by enabling scientists to predict and select better quality leads. Scientists can view, analyze and modify protein structures using interactive sequence and 3D structure editor windows, as well as optimize proteins with tens of thousands of atoms, all on their desktop computers.

The BioMedCAChe software also deals with protein-ligand interactions through graphical and analytical models. The ActiveSite option with FastDock™ automated docking enables scientists to dock rigid or flexible ligands into a protein with rigid or flexible sidechains. The ActiveSite module is superior to many competing docking packages that are constrained by molecular size and display speed, which require the use of expensive UNIX workstations. BioMedCAChe software is currently the only desktop solution to offer such flexibility in configuration.