MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London
Science for Health
Heptares Therapeutics announces agreement with Novartis
14 October 2009
Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, the drug discovery company focused on G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) targets, announced today that it has entered into an option agreement with the Novartis Option Fund under which Heptares will apply its proprietary StaR(TM) technology to generate novel drug leads against a nominated, unspecified GPCR target of interest to Novartis.
StaR technology enables GPCRs, normally membrane-bound, to be worked on in solution, allowing the use of structure-based drug discovery technologies and the discovery of novel drugs addressing this important set of targets. Heptares is deploying this technology principally to generate small molecule drugs against currently difficult or intractable GPCR targets in several disease areas.
Heptares was founded in 2007 and its StaR technology arose out of the pioneering work of Heptares' founding scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Ed Hulme at the National Institute for Medical Research. Ed Hulme (pictured) is on the Scientific Advisory Board of Heptares.
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