After Roche and Takeda, Sosei took a $480 million partnership with GlaxoSmithKline

On December 21st Sosei Group Corporation announced that it had entered into a global partnership licensing agreement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
The single target protocol focuses on the research and development of the selective oral small molecule astrogen GPR35, an important G protein-coupled subjectivity (GPCR), associated with genetic factors associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other gastrointestinal immune disorders.
In accordance with the terms of the agreement, GlaxoSmithKline authorized the design of a combination of GPR35 agonists using Stabilised Receptors (Stabilised Receptors, StaR®) technology and structure-based drug design (SBDD) platforms, as well as an innovative pilot preclinical compound and a number of different candidate compounds.
the research and development process, Sosei Heptares and GSK are jointly responsible for early research and preclinical development, which will be led by GSK.
, Sosei Heptares is eligible for up-front payments, potential recent development milestone payments, and up to $44 million in research funding.
the milestone node, Sosei Heptares will receive additional development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments of up to $437 million.
addition, Sosei Heptares will be eligible for a tiered royalty for net sales of pharmaceuticals when the co-developed product is available in the future.
Sosei Heptares is a Japanese biopharmaceutical group dedicated to the discovery and development of new therapies across a variety of therapeutic areas, including neurology, immunology, gastroenterology and inflammatory diseases, with many years of experience in screening new GPCR drug targets, and has established a structure-based targeting GPCR drug development platform.
Sosei Group, which has research and development facilities in Japan and the UNITED Kingdom, acquired THE UK-based Heptares in February 2016 for $400 million to acquire the core technology and platform for the development of GPCRs drugs.
Sosei Heptares has built partnerships with several of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies (Read: After Roche, Sosei has won another $1.2 billion partnership with Takeda), including AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Genentech, Roche, Novarma, Pfizer and Takeda.
G protein coupled subjects (GPCR) have been a hot spot for research and development in major pharmaceutical companies, accounting for about 34% of all FDA approved drugs, and the overall drug market is likely to account for about 27% of the turnover of GPCR drugs.
However, only 15% of the more than 800 human GPCRs are currently being developed as targets for drugs, and there is a large number of GPCRs waiting to be developed as potential drug targets, so the study of new subject development techniques will help these targets further transform into clinical treatment.
In response to the clearly unseeded market demand potential for gastrointestinal and immune system diseases, Sosei Heptares' SBDD platform and significant investment in translational biology and therapeutics will create small molecules that are targeted and differentiated, and collaboration with GSK will likely accelerate the progress of these new drugs.
。