Sosei Group Corporation and its strategic alliance partner Pfizer announce that a new clinical candidate from their multi-target drug discovery collaboration was nominated to advance into clinical development. Sosei Heptares will receive a $3 million milestone payment from Pfizer for this achievement. The first clinical candidate under this collaboration was nominated by Pfizer in May 2019.

The multi-target drug discovery collaboration between Sosei Heptares and Pfizer was signed in November 2015 to research and develop potential new medicines directed at up to ten GPCR targets across multiple therapeutic areas. Many of these targets have clinical or biological validation as key points for therapeutic intervention potentially targeting a range of diseases but have proven difficult to address with conventional discovery approaches because of inherent technical challenges.

In an effort to address these challenges, Sosei Heptares and Pfizer scientists worked closely together to leverage their respective complementary expertise in enabling GPCR-focused structure-based drug design (SBDD) and development initially directed to the GPCR targets selected by Pfizer. Pfizer will be responsible for developing and commercialising any potential therapeutic agents (small molecules or biologics) for each target and will have exclusive global rights to any potential resulting agents.

Sosei Heptares has delivered multiple stabilized receptors (StaR® proteins), X-ray structures and biophysical data on certain programs, triggering milestone payments from Pfizer, including the US$3 million announced recently, as well as $3 million in May 2019, both resulting from the nomination of new clinical candidates. Further possible milestones payments are contemplated under the agreement, with potential for royalties also payable provided the criteria under the agreement are satisfied.

Pfizer also made a US$33 million equity investment in Sosei Heptares in 2015. In the future, Pfizer and Sosei Heptares anticipate publication of select research findings from their collaboration.