Heptares First-in-Class Selective Muscarinic Agonists Chosen as one of top Neuroscience Projects to Watch

LONDON and BOSTON, November 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Program to be presented at Therapeutic Area Partnerships Conference in Boston on 20 November  

Heptares Therapeutics, the leading GPCR structure-guided drug discovery and development company, is pleased to announce that its first-in-class selective muscarinic agonist programme has been selected as one of ten top projects in neuroscience by a panel of industry experts. Heptares President Dan Grau will present an overview of the programme at the upcoming Therapeutic Area Partnerships conference (19-21 November 2015, Boston, MA, USA).

Heptares has created a pipeline of selective M₁, selective M₄ and dual selective M₁/M₄ agonists for the treatment of a wide range of disorders associated with cognitive impairment and/or psychosis. The most advanced selective M₁ agonist candidate is in currently being evaluated in Phase 1 clinical studies and has potential for improving cognitive function (memory and thinking abilities) in patients with Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and other diseases associated with cognitive impairment. Heptares is also developing selective M₄ agonists for treating psychosis in schizophrenia and the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, and dual M₁/M₄ agonists for clinical settings of co-morbid cognitive impairment and psychosis.

Muscarinic M₁ and M₄ receptors are highly validated yet previously undruggable clinical targets. The principal challenge has been to engineer selective compounds that activate these receptors without also activating the closely related M₂ or M₃ receptors, which are associated with undesirable side effects. All previous compounds have been discontinued due to inadequate selectivity and the Heptares agents represent novel chemotype, first-in-class product candidates.

Mr Grau will also participate in a roundtable discussion at the conference, entitled "The Current Status of Innovation in Neurotherapeutics - Paths to Increased Efficiency and Decreased Cost." The roundtable discussion will take place on Thursday 20 November at 10:00am ET and the selective muscarinic programme presentation will take place at 1:40 pm ET.

About Heptares Therapeutics 

Heptares creates transformative medicines targeting G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a superfamily of drug receptors linked to a wide range of human diseases. Our proprietary structure-based drug design technology enables us to engineer drugs for highly validated, yet historically undruggable or challenging, GPCRs. Using this approach, we have built an exciting pipeline of new medicines with the potential to transform the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, ADHD, diabetes, schizophrenia, migraine, and other diseases. Our pharmaceutical partners include Cubist, MorphoSys, Takeda, AstraZeneca and MedImmune, and we are backed by Clarus Ventures, MVM Life Science Partners, Novartis Venture Fund, the Stanley Family Foundation and Takeda Ventures. To learn more about Heptares, please visit http://www.heptares.com 

HEPTARES is a registered trademark in the EU, Switzerland, US and Japan;  

StaR is a registered trademark in the EU and Japan. 

SOURCE Heptares Therapeutics