Boehringer Ingelheim and Sosei Heptares target schizophrenia treatments

These include an option exercise payment of €60m and further development, regulatory and commercialisation milestone fees up to €670m plus customary tiered royalties for a clinical stage asset on future Boehringer Ingelheim product sales.

At the heart of the venture is a mission to develop and commercialise Sosei’s portfolio of first-in-class GPR52 agonists, a novel G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) target, to improve patient outcomes by simultaneously addressing positive, negative and cognitive symptoms of the long-term mental health condition.

Schizophrenia is characterised by three clusters of symptoms:-
• Positive – such as psychosis, delusions and hallucinations
• Negative – such as social withdrawal and apathy
• Cognitive – such as attention, planning and memory deficits

The impact of these symptoms on people’s ability to cope with normal day-to-day life is significant and the related burden on carers and society at large is substantial, especially since the age of onset of the disease is typically in the 20s.

While ‘positive’ symptoms can be stabilised with antipsychotics, some of which can have side effects, there are currently no approved medicines for ‘negative’ or cognitive symptoms.

The development of a new schizophrenia treatment targeting GPR52 has the potential to address all three aspects of schizophrenia – providing a novel precision treatment.

This is based on the location of the receptor in the two areas of the brain that drive the positive (the striatum) and the negative and cognitive symptoms (the prefrontal cortex). The GPR52 agonism calms the striatum while boosting frontal cortical function, which achieves further precision in treatment.

Hugh Marston, Global Head of CNS Discovery Research at Boehringer Ingelheim, says: “We’re very excited to enter this partnership with Sosei Heptares with this novel approach, which aims to address a huge unmet need of those living with schizophrenia.

“This partnership is highly complementary to our other development programs aiming to bring a new precision medicine approach to the treatment of mental health disorders with therapies, which we hope will transform the lives of those living with schizophrenia.”

Matt Barnes, President of Heptares Therapeutics and Head of UK R&D at Sosei Heptares, adds: “This collaboration highlights the significant potential GPR52 has shown in preclinical research as a novel, first in class target for the treatment of schizophrenia and related neurological disorders.

“We’re delighted to partner with Boehringer Ingelheim and leverage its leading expertise in neurological disease research and innovation. Together, we will focus on accelerating the development of this highly innovative program, which is currently in a Phase 1 clinical study towards patients in need.”