Boehringer Ingelheim has formed a partnership with Sosei Heptares in a deal aimed at developing a new type of schizophrenia medicine, the companies announced Monday.
Through the partnership, the two companies will work together to advance a portfolio of medicines that focus on GPR52, a protein receptor that’s surfaced as a potential drug target in multiple psychiatric disorders. GPR52 regulates a variety of neurological functions and is highly expressed in the brain. The companies anticipate that stimulating that target with a medicine could yield a new way to treat schizophrenia.
Sosei Heptares will receive €25 million, or more than $27 million, in upfront cash to start the deal. The Japanese drugmaker could receive another €60 million if Boehringer Ingelheim exercises an option to license the experimental prospects, which include one drug in early-stage testing and “multiple diffrentiated back-up compounds.” It’s also eligible for another €670 million in future milestone payments, well as sales royalties.
“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,” said Hugh Marston, the head of neurological disease research at Boehringer Ingelheim, in a statement.
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a variety of different “positive,” “negative” and “cognitive” symptoms, among them delusions and disordered thinking. Though several drugs are available, they don’t work for everyone. And negative symptoms, like emotional suppression, are harder to treat with existing antipsychotics.
For many years, pharmaceutical firms retreated from research into psychiatric drugs. But of late there have been signs of renewed interest. Progress biotechs made developing a newer class of schizophrenia medicines led to multibillion-dollar acquisitions by Bristol Myers Squibb and AbbVie last year in competitive sales processes. Those acquisitions have led some analysts to speculate that more buyouts could be on the horizon.
Boehringer’s alliance adds to the string of recent activity. The companies believe that because of the way GPR52 drugs work, the medicines may be able to address positive, negative and cognitive symptoms of the condition.
Their research is early, however. Sosei Heptares’ most advanced prospect, codenamed HTL0048149, began Phase 1 testing last year.