Japanese firm Sosei Group Corporation and US-based AbbVie, a research-based global biopharmaceutical company, 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 $40 million on signing and is eligible to receive up to $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 $1.2 billion, plus tiered royalties on global sales.