Sosei Heptares and PharmEnable Therapeutics Expand Drug Discovery Collaboration

• The collaboration combines Sosei Heptares’ leading structure-based drug design platform with PharmEnable’s advanced artificial intelligence-enabled platform for designing high quality novel chemistry leads on a second neurological disease target

Tokyo, Japan and Cambridge, UK, 10 October 2023 – Sosei Group Corporation (“Sosei Heptares” or “the Company”; TSE: 4565) and PharmEnable Therapeutics, a UK drug discovery company, announce they have expanded their collaboration to apply their respective technologies to drive novel drug discovery for a second neurological disease target. 

Sosei Heptares is known for its expertise in receptor protein structure determination, Structure-Based Drug Design (SBDD) and translational development. PharmEnable will apply its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled medicinal chemistry platform (chemUNIVERSE) to design highly specific drug leads for further development.

Expanding their 2021 agreement, the companies will jointly conduct and share the costs of the discovery and the development programme and will co-own any resulting products equally. The companies are already exploiting their complementary capabilities in an ongoing collaboration focused on an initial target receptor, where they have identified promising small molecules with a new binding mode and novel chemotype.

Dr. Matt Barnes, President of Heptares Therapeutics and Head of UK R&D, commented: “Based on our experience working on our initial collaboration target, PharmEnable’s proprietary AI platform has demonstrated a level of success that supports us extending our collaboration. We look forward to applying our SBDD expertise along with PharmEnable’s novel chemistry to further identify high quality molecules.”

Dr. Hannah Sore, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PharmEnable, commented: “We are excited to be expanding our partnership with Sosei Heptares to include an additional target. We have demonstrated the complementarity of our platform and Sosei Heptares’ structural insights while working on our first target and we look forward to continuing to work together and applying our technologies to develop life-changing medicines for neurological disease.”

-ENDS-

About PharmEnable Therapeutics

PharmEnable Therapeutics is a Cambridge (UK) based drug discovery company specialising in designing high quality novel chemistry to develop highly potent, selective and orally bioavailable new medicines. The company’s proprietary drug discovery platform integrates advanced medicinal chemistry expertise and cutting-edge AI/computational methods to unlock challenging biological targets and deliver highly effective therapies for diseases with significant unmet clinical need.

On a mission to deliver life-changing medicines, PharmEnable’s world-class team works across a range of disease areas where drug potency, selectivity and balance of properties poses a significant challenge. It has a pipeline of wholly owned oncology programmes, as well as ongoing co-discovery projects.

The company is backed by MP Healthcare Venture Management (the venture arm of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Group) and a syndicate of experienced life science investors.

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About Sosei Heptares

Sosei Heptares is a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company focused on bringing life-changing medicines based on world-class science to patients globally. Our vision is to become one of Japan’s global biopharmaceutical champions. 

Our global business combines our world-leading GPCR-targeted StaR® technology, structure-based drug design and early development capabilities in the UK with a highly experienced clinical development capability and a commercial operation in Japan.

We are leveraging these capabilities to generate and advance a broad and deep pipeline of novel medicines across multiple therapeutic areas, including neurology, immunology, gastroenterology and inflammatory diseases. We intend to develop these opportunities for patients in Japan and globally both internally and through our partnerships with global biopharmaceutical companies and emerging technology companies.

Sosei Heptares operates from key locations in Tokyo and Osaka (Japan), London and Cambridge (UK) and Seoul (South Korea).

“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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Enquiries:

Sosei Heptares – Media and Investor Relations

Kentaro Tahara, VP Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy

Shinichiro Nishishita, VP Investor Relations, Head of Regulatory Disclosures

Maya Bennison, Communications Manager

+81 (0)3 5210 3399 | +44 (0)1223 949390 |

MEDiSTRAVA Consulting (for International Media)

Mark Swallow, Frazer Hall, Erica Hollingsworth

+44 (0)203 928 6900 |

PharmaEnable Therapeutics

Dr Jelena Aleksic, CBO, PharmEnable,

, +44 (0)7793534121

Media enquiries (for PharmEnable Therapeutics)

Gemma Moses, Communications Consultant

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.