OMass Announces Acquisition of Pharmacology Capabilities from Excellerate Biosciences

- OMass acquires a pharmacology team led by industry expert, Professor Steven Charlton –

Oxford, 25 February 2020 – OMass Therapeutics (“OMass”), a biotechnology company harnessing native mass spectrometry to drive drug discovery in high definition, today announced completion of the acquisition of assets and capabilities from Excellerate Biosciences (“Excellerate”), including a team of experienced pharmacologists led by Professor Steven Charlton.

Excellerate, a contract research organisation, provides specialist molecular and cellular pharmacology and biochemistry solutions to the biotech and pharma sector. The acquisition brings core expertise in membrane protein pharmacology which will see OMass progress further towards its goal of becoming a fully integrated drug discovery and development company.

Steven Charlton was a Founder of Excellerate where he acted as its Chief Scientific Officer. As part of the acquisition, Steven will join the Executive Leadership team of OMass. Steven and his team will continue to operate from Nottingham where OMass is also building capabilities in target validation.

Steven has spent 16 years in the pharmaceutical industry, both at SmithKline Beecham and Novartis. At Novartis he was Director of Molecular Pharmacology in Respiratory Diseases, leading an assay development and compound profiling team of over 30 scientists providing expert opinion and support for many GPCR and other membrane protein targets. He also served on development teams covering late clinical development through post-launch. In 2007 Steven was awarded Novartis Leading Scientist in recognition of his contribution to the field of quantitative pharmacology and to the Novartis pipeline. Steven is also Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Drug Discovery in the School of Life Sciences at Nottingham University.

“The acquisition of pharmacology capabilities from Excellerate is a key step in our journey towards an integrated company that discovers, develops and ultimately commercialises life-changing medicines for patients with immunological and genetic diseases”, said Ros Deegan, Chief Executive Officer, OMass Therapeutics. “I’m delighted to welcome Steven and his team. Their expertise will be invaluable as we characterise the hits that we have identified for our pipeline.”

“On behalf of myself and my colleagues at Excellerate, we are delighted to join OMass as it continues to develop exciting new capabilities and technologies for drug discovery”, said Professor Steven Charlton, former Chief Scientific Officer of Excellerate Biosciences. “The resolution offered by OMass’s native mass spectrometry platform enables novel findings even at well-studied receptors. Combining this with Excellerate’s in vitro pharmacology capabilities will deliver a world-leading drug discovery platform for membrane proteins.”  

About OMass Therapeutics

OMass is harnessing native mass spectrometry and other biophysical technologies to drive drug discovery in high definition. The company’s suite of proprietary technologies delivers superior resolution to traditional pharmacology assays enabling a clearer, more detailed picture of how a putative ligand engages a protein target assessing binding and function in parallel. The additional information obtained in the OMass assays can reveal new biology even at well-studied receptors and the cell-free system is unbiased for different ligand chemistries unmasking chemical space of high therapeutic potential inaccessible to cell-based assays. The company is building a pipeline of small molecule therapeutics to bring life-changing benefits to patients suffering from immunology and genetic disorders. OMass is backed by Syncona Ltd Oxford Sciences Innovation and Oxford University. For further information please visit the Company’s website at: www.omass.com