Sosei Heptares Creates New World-Class International Scientific Advisory Board to Support Strategic Decision-Making Aligned with Corporate Objectives

TOKYO and LONDON, Nov. 19. 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Sosei Group Corporation ("the Company"; TSE: 4565) announces the formation of a new Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) to advise on the Company's scientific strategy in support of its corporate objectives.

The SAB includes world-leading experts from academia and the pharmaceutical industry in the US and Europe, each of whom is highly regarded in their respective fields. Collectively, the SAB will provide valuable insight and perspective relevant to strategic areas of focus for Sosei Heptares. These relate to extending its leadership advantage in G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) structure-based drug design and capitalizing on the value-generation potential of this and its pipeline of novel drug candidates. Brief biographies are below, and more information is available on the Sosei Heptares website.

The SAB includes:

Dr. David Roblin (Chair), former Senior VP and Head of R&D for Pfizer in Europe and Director of Scientific Translation at the Francis Crick Institute (London, UK); current President of R&D at Summit Therapeutics plc (Oxford, UK); Board Director of Sosei Group Corporation.

Dr. Peter Bernstein, a drug discovery and development consultant with more than 30 years' experience working with AstraZeneca and its previous incarnations; advanced multiple compounds into development.

Prof. Ed Bullmore, Head of the Department of Psychiatry and Director of the Wolfson Brian Imaging Centre (University of Cambridge, UK); former VP Experimental Medicine at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

Prof. Richard Henderson, a structural biologist/biophysicist and pioneer in the field of electron microscopy (EM) of biological molecules, such as GPCRs; based at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB; Cambridge, UK) and a co-founder of Heptares Therapeutics; shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017 with Jacques Dubochet and Joachim Frank for his work on cryo-EM.

Dr. Paul Leeson, a medicinal chemistry consultant with more than 35 years' experience in pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, GSK, Merck & Co and Wyeth, leading to advances in drug discovery in cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory and inflammation.

Prof. Sir Keith Peters, former Regius Professor of Physic and Head of the Clinical School at the University of Cambridge, UK; formerly a senior advisor to Merck & Co, Amersham plc, and GSK; knighted for services to medicine in 1993 and made GBE (Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire) in 2018 for services to the advancement of medical sciences.

Dr. Caetano Reis e Sousa, Assistant Research Director and Senior Group Leader of the Immunobiology Laboratory at The Francis Crick Institute and Professor of Immunology at Imperial College London.

Dr. Darryle Schoepp, a research consultant with over 30 years' experience in the discovery and development of innovative neuroscience therapeutics leading research and therapeutic area teams at Eli Lilly and Merck & Co.

Dr. Roberto Solari, Visiting Professor at the National Heart & Lung Institute (Imperial College London); formerly at GlaxoSmithKline and MRCT, the technology transfer arm of the UK Medical Research Council.

Dr. Christopher Tate, a membrane protein biochemist at the MRC LMB who pioneered the use of conformational thermostabilization for the structure determination of GPCRs; co-founder of Heptares Therapeutics.

Mr. Anders Tullgren, a consultant/advisor to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and private equity firms; over 20 years in commercial leadership roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb around the world.

Dr. Malcolm Weir, Executive Vice President Research and Early Development of Sosei Heptares, said: "We are delighted to have assembled such an outstanding Scientific Advisory Board. Each member has been selected based on the world-class expertise and experience they can bring to support our scientific strategy as a fundamental driver of our corporate activities. Their insights and advice will be crucial to our strategic decision-making processes as we continue to create value from our leading GPCR-focused drug discovery and development capabilities."

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 CNS, immuno-oncology, gastroenterology, inflammation and other rare/specialty indications.

We have established partnerships with some of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, including Allergan, AstraZeneca, Daiichi-Sankyo, Genentech (Roche), Novartis, Pfizer and Takeda; and with innovative biotechnology companies, including Kymab, MorphoSys and PeptiDream. Sosei Heptares is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan with R&D facilities in Cambridge, UK.

"Sosei Heptares" is the corporate brand of Sosei Group Corporation, which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (ticker: 4565).

For more information, please visit https://www.soseiheptares.com/ 
LinkedIn: @soseiheptaresco | Twitter: @soseiheptaresco | YouTube: @soseiheptaresco

Enquiries:
Sosei Heptares 
Shinichiro Nishishita – VP Investor Relations
+81-(0)-3-5210-3399 | IR@SoseiHeptares.com

Candelle Chong – VP Corporate Strategy and Communications
+44-(0)-1223-949-392 | Comms@SoseiHeptares.com

Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Yas Fukuda – Japanese Media
+81-(3)-4360-9241 | Yas.Fukuda@citigatedewerogerson.com

Mark Swallow, David Dible – International Media
+44-(0)-20-7638-9571 | SoseiHeptares@citigatedewerogerson.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.