Sosei Heptares and Aditum Bio create new company - Tempero Bio - to advance the clinical development of mGlu5 NAM program in neurological diseases

TOKYO and CAMBRIDGE, England, Nov. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sosei Group Corporation ("the Company") (TSE: 4565) has entered into an agreement¹ with Tempero Bio, under which Tempero Bio has in-licensed exclusive global rights to Sosei Heptares' mGlu5 negative allosteric modulator (NAM) program to develop therapies targeting substance use disorders and anxiety. Tempero Bio is a new company created by Aditum Bio in collaboration with Sosei Heptares to develop the mGlu5 NAM program, including the candidate HTL0014242 (TMP-301), which is in Phase I studies. Tempero Bio will be funded by Aditum Bio.

Aditum Bio is an investment firm focused on acquiring and developing biotechnology assets that target large patient population health needs. Its strategy is to create individual "spin-out" companies to implement Phase I and Phase II clinical trials to speed these drugs to market.

Aditum Bio also aims to combine behavior modification, though digital devices (e.g. mobile apps), with pharmaceuticals to support patient treatment, improve adherence and ultimately create better patient outcomes.

Aditum Bio was co-founded by industry veterans Joe Jimenez, former CEO of Novartis, and Mark Fishman, former President of the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research. The firm works in collaboration with TrialSpark, a tech-enabled platform that conducts innovative clinical trials faster and at lower cost than traditional clinical development organizations.

Under the terms of the agreement, Tempero Bio will obtain exclusive global rights to a portfolio of potent, orally available metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGlu5) NAM modulators, including HTL0014242, which were precision-designed by Sosei Heptares using its GPCR Structure-Based Drug Design (SBDD) platform. The candidate HTL0014242 will be renamed TMP-301.

Tempero Bio will also gain access to a substantial clinical and preclinical data package, patents and proprietary know-how on the program generated by Sosei Heptares. In return, Sosei Heptares² receives an upfront payment and strategic equity stake in Tempero Bio, and is eligible to receive future success-based development and commercial milestone payments plus tiered royalties from any future product sales. Further financial details were not disclosed.

Glutamate is one of the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitters in the human nervous system and alterations in glutamate signaling, and mGlu5, are associated with a range of neurological disorders, such as addiction and anxiety. HTL0014242 is one of a series of potent and selective mGlu5 NAMs designed by Sosei Heptares to reduce excessive glutamate signaling and provide opportunities for new therapies in areas of high unmet medical need.

Joe Jimenez, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Aditum Bio, said: "We created Aditum Bio to select and develop clinical assets using a novel approach combining data, software and technology to speed development. The mGlu5 NAM program from Sosei Heptares fits our selection criteria very well, offering clear opportunities for the development of important new products for addiction and anxiety. The reported rates of both conditions have increased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic according to the US Center for Disease Control. We are delighted to enter this new agreement, and through Tempero Bio to advance this program through clinical trials for the benefit of patients."

Shinichi Tamura, President and CEO of Sosei Heptares, commented: "Aditum is pioneering an exciting new company and asset development model that combines their significant and proven experience in drug development with the potential to rapidly accelerate clinical trial execution through TrialSpark. We are delighted that, through Tempero Bio, our clinical stage mGlu5 NAM program will be one of the first programs to be advanced using this new approach. This exciting new agreement adds another co-owned investment to our portfolio, which we believe can be a route to creating new products for patients and long-term value for shareholders."

¹ Wholly owned UK subsidiary Heptares Therapeutics Limited is party to the transaction

² Heptares Therapeutics Limited

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, including AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Genentech (Roche), Novartis, Pfizer and Takeda and additionally with multiple emerging technology companies. 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.

For more information, please visit https://www.soseiheptares.com/

LinkedIn: @soseiheptaresco | Twitter: @soseiheptaresco | YouTube: @soseiheptaresco

About Aditum Bio

Aditum Bio is committed to improving public health by accelerating R&D in disease areas with large patient populations, where medical innovation can make a huge impact. With a Silicon-Valley inspired model, Aditum Bio in-licenses promising drug candidates and spins-out individual companies dedicated to bringing each candidate through Phase II clinical trials. In partnership with TrialSpark, Aditum Bio uses data, software and technology to help bring innovative medicines through the clinical trial phase more quickly and with lower costs than traditional pharmaceutical companies.

For more information, please visit www.aditumbio.com   

About TrialSpark

TrialSpark is a technology company that runs end-to-end clinical trials as an alternative to a traditional CRO. TrialSpark partners with doctors to create trial sites within their existing practices and runs trials out of these sites using a roaming cohort of research coordinators, optimized by software, data, and technology. By creating trial sites with doctors, TrialSpark unlocks the 99% of patients who traditionally haven't been able to participate in trials, boosting recruitment rates and democratizing access. TrialSpark is backed by leading investors such as Michael Moritz, John Doerr, Thrive Capital, and Sequoia Capital.
Enquiries:

Sosei Heptares – Media and Investor Relations

Hironoshin Nomura, SVP Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy
+81 (0)3 6679 2178 | [email protected]

Shinichiro Nishishita, VP Investor Relations, Head of Regulatory Disclosures
+81 (0)3 5210 3399 | [email protected]

Citigate Dewe Rogerson

Yas Fukuda – Japanese Media
+81 (0)3 4360 9234 | [email protected]

Mark Swallow, David Dible – International Media
+44 (0)20 7638 9571 | [email protected]

Aditum Bio

Kathryn Jankelunas, Ruder Finn
+1 (212) 583 2744 | [email protected]

Forward-looking statements

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SOURCE Sosei Heptares