C4X Discovery Holdings plc and HitGen Inc. announce a research collaboration project to identify novel, small molecule hits against an inflammatory target for further C4XD development. The aim of the project is to augment C4XD's growing pipeline of small molecule inflammatory disease candidates for pre-clinical development and out-licensing to the pharmaceutical industry. In this initial collaboration, C4XD and HitGen have together developed an approach for HitGen to apply its DEL screening technology platform to identify hits against a commercially valuable target for inflammatory diseases.

If successful, C4XD will then apply its molecule design Conformetrix technology to translate these hits into suitable starting points for a small molecule programme, which can then be progressed through C4XD's rigorous Drug Discovery process. C4XD has the option to extend the collaboration with HitGen during this Drug Discovery phase to leverage HitGen's growing R&D capabilities.