Sosei Heptares and AbbVie Enter New Multi-target Collaboration to Discover, Develop and Commercialize Novel Medicines Targeting Neurological Diseases

• New strategic collaboration leverages Sosei Heptares’ StaR^® technology and SBDD platform and AbbVie’s extensive neuroscience expertise
• Second collaboration with AbbVie follows 2020 agreement focused on inflammatory and autoimmune diseases
• Sosei Heptares eligible to receive up to $80 million in upfront and near-term milestone payments and has potential to receive further downstream payments totalling up to US$1.2 billion, plus tiered royalties
  
  

TOKYO, Japan and CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, Aug. 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sosei Group Corporation (“the Company”; TSE: 4565) and AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV), a research-based global biopharmaceutical company, announce they have entered a new drug discovery collaboration and option-to-license agreement to discover, develop and commercialize small molecules that modulate novel G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) targets associated with neurological disease.

The new agreement will leverage Sosei Heptares’ StaR^® technology and structure-based drug design (SBDD) platform and AbbVie’s extensive neuroscience and disease area expertise. The agreement expands the breadth of the ongoing collaboration between Sosei Heptares and AbbVie, building on the first multi-target discovery agreement signed between the companies in June 2020, which is focused on the inflammatory and autoimmune disease areas.

Under the terms of the new agreement, Sosei Heptares will conduct and fund R&D activities through the completion of Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling studies. AbbVie has the exclusive option to license up to three programs at this stage and will have responsibility for clinical, regulatory and commercial development thereafter. Sosei Heptares receives an upfront payment of US$40 million on signing and is eligible to receive up to US$40 million in near-term research milestone payments expected over the next three years, as well as further potential option, development and commercial milestones totalling up to US$1.2 billion, plus tiered royalties on global sales.

Matt Barnes, Head of UK Research & Development, Sosei Heptares said: “We are delighted to enter this new multi-target discovery collaboration with AbbVie in the neuroscience area, a therapeutic area in which we share deep and complementary experience and expertise. We have established a highly productive working relationship with our counterparts at AbbVie over the past two years through our initial collaboration and are very pleased with how this is progressing. We believe this strong foundation will enable us to get off to a quick start as we tackle the novel and challenging neurology targets under this new agreement.”

About Sosei Heptares

We are an international biopharmaceutical group focused on the discovery and early 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 neurology, immunology, gastroenterology and inflammatory diseases.

We have established partnerships with some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies and multiple emerging technology companies, including AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Biohaven, Genentech (Roche), GSK, Neurocrine Biosciences, Novartis, Pfizer, Takeda and Verily. Sosei Heptares is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan with corporate and R&D facilities in Cambridge, UK.

“Sosei Heptares” is the corporate brand and trademark of Sosei Group Corporation, which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (ticker: 4565). Sosei, Heptares, the logo and StaR^® are trademarks of Sosei Group companies.

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Sosei Heptares 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.