Sosei Heptares Enters Into Multi-target Research Collaboration and License Agreement With Genentech

TOKYO and LONDON, July 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Sosei Group Corporation ("the Company") (TSE: 4565) announces that it has entered into a multi-target research collaboration and license agreement with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to discover and develop novel medicines (new small molecules and/or biologics) that modulate G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) targets of interest to Genentech.

Under the terms of the agreement, the collaboration will combine the proprietary GPCR-focused structure-based drug design capabilities at Sosei Heptares with Genentech's discovery, development and therapeutic area expertise directed towards multiple GPCR targets nominated by Genentech. The nominated targets represent promising new therapeutic intervention points across a range of diseases.

Genentech will be responsible for developing and commercializing potential new medicines for each novel target and will have exclusive global rights to these agents.

Sosei Heptares is eligible to receive US$26 million in upfront and near-term payments, in addition to future milestone payments that may exceed US$1 billion for achieving pre-specified research, development and commercialization events. Sosei Heptares is also eligible to receive royalty payments on the net sales of potential future medicines resulting from the collaboration.

Dr. Malcolm Weir, Executive Vice President and Chief R&D Officer of Sosei Heptares, said: "Sosei Heptares has strived to collaborate with leaders in the industry who appreciate the potential of combining their extensive drug development and commercialization expertise with our world-leading GPCR structure-based drug design approach to generate and advance new therapeutics across multiple disease areas. We are therefore delighted to enter this new partnership with Genentech, one of the most innovative companies in the biopharmaceutical industry, and excited to see what the combination of our respective capabilities can deliver."

James Sabry, M.D., Ph.D., Global Head of Pharma Partnering, Roche, added: "We believe GPCRs are an important target class that play a role in many serious diseases. Sosei Heptares brings truly unique capabilities to enable and accelerate GPCR drug discovery. We look forward to collaborating with the Sosei Heptares team to hopefully bring novel GPCR-targeted medicines to patients as quickly as possible."

Shinichi Tamura, Chairman, President and CEO of Sosei Heptares, added: "In the past five years, Sosei Heptares has partnered with several of the world's most successful pharmaceutical companies, as well as some of the most innovative biotechnology companies. Our powerful and unique approach to addressing GPCRs, as the largest and most diverse class of therapeutic targets, has enabled us to build an extensive pipeline of drug candidates across a broad range of diseases. The collective experience gained through these collaborations is driving our growth and development and enabling the company to become a truly world-class and global organization."

About Sosei Heptares
We are an international biopharmaceutical group focused on the design and development of new medicines originating from our proprietary GPCR-targeted StaR® technology and structure-based drug design platform capabilities. We are advancing a broad and deep pipeline of novel medicines across multiple therapeutic areas, including CNS, immuno-oncology, gastroenterology, inflammation and other rare/specialty indications. Our leading clinical programs include partnered candidates aimed at the symptomatic treatment of Alzheimer's disease (with Allergan) and next-generation immuno-oncology approaches to treat cancer (with AstraZeneca). Our additional partners and collaborators include Genentech, Novartis, Pfizer, Daiichi-Sankyo, PeptiDream, Kymab and MorphoSys. Sosei Heptares is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan with R&D facilities in Cambridge, UK.

"Sosei Heptares" is the corporate brand of Sosei Group Corporation, which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (ticker: 4565).

For more information, please visit https://www.soseiheptares.com/

LinkedIn: @soseiheptaresco | Twitter: @soseiheptaresco | YouTube: @soseiheptaresco

Forward-looking statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the discovery, development and commercialization of products. Various risks may cause Sosei Group Corporation's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including: adverse results in clinical development programs; failure to obtain patent protection for inventions; commercial limitations imposed by patents owned or controlled by third parties; dependence upon strategic alliance partners to develop and commercialize products and services; difficulties or delays in obtaining regulatory approvals to market products and services resulting from development efforts; the requirement for substantial funding to conduct research and development and to expand commercialization activities; and product initiatives by competitors. As a result of these factors, prospective investors are cautioned not to rely on any forward-looking statements. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Enquiries:
Sosei Heptares 
Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
Shinichiro Nishishita
+81 (0) 3-5210-3399
[email protected]

Citigate Dewe Rogerson (for international media)
Mark Swallow, David Dible, Shabnam Bashir
+44 (0) 20-7638-9571
[email protected]

SOURCE Sosei Heptares

Related Links

https://www.soseiheptares.com/