Oss – 19 November 2012 – Netherlands Translational Research Center B.V. (NTRC) and Carna Biosciences Inc. (Carna) (Kobe, Japan) announced that they have joined forces in the commercialization and marketing of their drug discovery services to the pharmaceutical industry.

NTRC, having its office and laboratories in Oss (The Netherlands), will offer the kinase assay profiling services of Carna to its customers in Europe. This service involves the testing of small molecule compounds on 311 biochemical kinase enzyme activity assays. In addition, NTRC will be the exclusive provider of Carna’s novel Reverse Phase Protein Array (RPPA) service in Europe. RPPA involves the analysis of the phosphorylation status of 180 disease-relevant proteins using a proprietary microarray technology and phospho-protein specific antibodies. Carna, having its headquarters in Kobe (Japan), will offer the chemical biology and cancer cell line profiling services of NTRC to customers in Japan on an exclusive basis.
‘We are excited about the strategic partnership with Carna.’ Dr. Guido Zaman, Head of Biology of NTRC said. ‘The kinase assay profiling services and the phospho-proteomics analysis services are complementary to our cancer cell line profiling service and provides us a strong portfolio of services for our customers in Europe.’
‘The current agreement with Carna strengthens our presence in Japan and facilitates customers of Carna to make use of our technology platform,’ Dr. Rogier Buijsman, Head of Chemistry of NTRC said.

Carna is the number one provider of kinase profiling services and kinase enzymes in Japan, and one of the leading kinase drug discovery service providers worldwide. NTRC is a biotech company recently established at the Pivot Park in Oss, which is located at the former research site of MSD/Organon in the Netherlands. Carna was established as a spin-out of Akzo Nobel/Organon in Japan in 2003 and is now a public company listed at the Osaka Securities Exchange Co., Ltd. (JASDAQ) with more than fifty employees, and with customers in pharmaceutical and biotech industries, and academic institutes all over the world. Dr. Guido Zaman and Dr. Kohichiro Yoshino, President and CEO of Carna have a long standing relationship dating back to the beginning of the century when both worked for the Dutch multinational and pharmaceutical company Akzo Nobel/Organon. ‘It is a great pleasure to collaborate again,’ Zaman said. ‘We look forward to see the partnership between our companies flourish.’

Netherlands Translational Research Center B.V. (NTRC) is a company based in Oss, the Netherlands, that develops scientific ideas into small molecule drug candidates. In addition, NTRC Services provides fee-for-service activities to pharmaceutical industries in the field of chemical biology and compound profiling, using its technology platforms EntropySelect™, SynergyFinder™ and Oncolines™. For more information on the drug discovery activities of NTRC or NTRC Services, see the website of NTRC: www.ntrc.nl, or send an e-mail to info@ntrc.nl.