Sosei Heptares and InveniAI Enter a Multi-target AI-powered and GPCR-focused Drug Discovery Collaboration

Creating transformative therapeutics for immune diseases by combining InveniAI's validated AI-based platform, AlphaMeld®, with Sosei Heptares' GPCR Structure-based Drug Design and early development capabilities

Focus on identifying GPCR targets across multiple disease areas

TOKYO and CAMBRIDGE, England, July 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sosei Group Corporation ("the Company") (TSE: 4565), the world leader in GPCR-focused structure-based drug design and development, and InveniAI^® LLC ("InveniAI," Guilford, CT, USA), a global leader in pioneering the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to transform innovation across drug discovery and development, announced today the initiation of a new R&D collaboration.

The objective of the collaboration is to identify new therapeutic product concepts for immune diseases where an AI and ML based approach can be applied to generate compelling evidence for the role of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) in relevant immunomodulatory pathways; the goal being to use these targets as a basis for SBDD to generate novel compounds that could improve responses to existing immunotherapies.

The collaboration will combine InveniAI's AI-powered platform for target discovery with Sosei Heptares' world-leading GPCR structure-based drug design and early development capabilities generate and advance transformative therapeutics across disease indications that remain with high unmet medical needs.

Dr. Miles Congreve, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Sosei Heptares, said: "We are excited to work together with InveniAI and look forward to integrating our unique capabilities to seek and identify new links between undrugged GPCR targets and compelling disease indications. This collaboration has the potential to further extend our GPCR-focused drug discovery and early development capabilities. GPCRs represent an important class of pharmaceutical targets, and it is estimated that about 30% of known drugs have their mode of action through a relatively small number of GPCRs. This leaves a significant number of remaining GPCR targets that could be attractive for therapeutic intervention. InveniAI's AlphaMeld® platform will deconvolute the biology of disease and industrialize target discovery by rapidly unravelling connections between GPCR targets and diseases with high unmet need."

InveniAI's Chief Business Officer, Aman Kant, added, "We are delighted to collaborate with Sosei Heptares, an industry leader in GPCR-based therapeutic modality. We have consistently demonstrated our AI capabilities in generating clinic-ready programs across various therapeutic modalities, including biologics, small molecules, and nucleotide-based therapies. This collaboration will leverage InveniAI's AI-based high-throughput discovery pipeline with Sosei Heptares' complementary chemistry approach to deliver drug candidates efficiently, at a scale, and with an enhanced probability of clinical success. We continue to be excited about AlphaMeld's potential, as numerous candidates have now progressed to various stages in clinical development as far as NDA submission."

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 and multiple emerging technology companies, including AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Biohaven, Genentech (Roche), Novartis, Pfizer and Takeda. 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://soseiheptares.com/

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

About InveniAI^®

InveniAI^® LLC, based in Guilford, Conn., is a global leader pioneering the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to transform innovation across drug discovery and development by identifying and accelerating transformative therapies for diseases with unmet medical needs. The company leverages, AlphaMeld^®, an AI- and ML-powered platform, to harness petabytes of disparate data sets to recognize and unlock value for drug discovery and development. Numerous industry collaborations in Big Pharma, Specialty Pharma, Biotech, and Consumer Healthcare showcase the value of leveraging our technology to meld human experience and expertise with the power of machines to augment R&D decision-making across all major therapeutic areas. The company leverages AlphaMeld^® to augment and accelerate drug discovery programs for our industry partners and an internal portfolio of programs addressing highly debilitating, functional, chronic inflammatory, and autoimmune gastrointestinal (GI) disorders driven by dysregulation of the gut-brain axis.

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

Enquiries:

Sosei Heptares – Media and Investor Relations

Hironoshin Nomura
SVP Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy
+81 (0)3 6679 2178
Hironoshin.Nomura@SoseiHeptares.com

Shinichiro Nishishita
VP Investor Relations
Head of Regulatory Disclosures
+81 (0)3 5210 3399 
IR@SoseiHeptares.com

Citigate Dewe Rogerson (for Japanese Media)

Yas Fukuda
+81 (0)3 4360 9234
Yas.Fukuda@citigatedewerogerson.com

MEDiSTRAVA Consulting (for International Media)

Mark Swallow, David Dible
+44 (0)20 7638 9571
SoseiHeptares@medistrava.com

InveniAI LLC

Anita Ganjoo, Ph.D.
Corporate Communications
+1 203 643 8041
aganjoo@inveniai.com 

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the discovery, development and commercialization of products. Various risks may cause Sosei Group Corporation's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including: adverse results in clinical development programs; failure to obtain patent protection for inventions; commercial limitations imposed by patents owned or controlled by third parties; dependence upon strategic alliance partners to develop and commercialize products and services; difficulties or delays in obtaining regulatory approvals to market products and services resulting from development efforts; the requirement for substantial funding to conduct research and development and to expand commercialization activities; and product initiatives by competitors. As a result of these factors, prospective investors are cautioned not to rely on any forward-looking statements. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.