Sosei Heptares Receives $10 Million Milestone Payment in Discovery Collaboration with AbbVie Targeting Inflammatory Diseases

Tokyo, Japan and Cambridge, UK, 13 December 2022 – Sosei Group Corporation (“the Company”; TSE: 4565), the world leader in G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) focused structure-based drug design (SBDD) and development, announces that it has reached an important R&D milestone under its discovery collaboration with AbbVie, the global biopharmaceutical company, focused on inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The achievement triggers a payment of US$10 million to Sosei Heptares.

Sosei Heptares and AbbVie entered into this discovery collaboration and option-to-license agreement in 2020 to discover, develop and commercialize novel small molecule medicines that modulate GPCR targets of interest to AbbVie.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sosei Heptares is eligible to receive up to US$32 million in upfront and near-term milestone payments, as well as potential option, development and commercial milestones of up to $377 million, plus tiered royalties on global commercial sales.

Separately, Sosei Heptares and AbbVie also have a multi-target collaboration underway (signed in 2022), to discover, develop and commercialize novel medicines targeting neurological diseases and worth up to a potential US$1.2 billion to Sosei Heptares, plus royalties on sales.

Matt Barnes, President of Heptares Therapeutics and Head of UK R&D, commented: “We are delighted with the progress we are making in both of our exciting collaborations with AbbVie in the inflammatory disease and neuroscience areas. The milestone we have reached in the inflammatory disease collaboration is a great example of how the important insights and expertise brought by the scientific teams from both companies are driving the program forward. We look forward to continued progress and further achievements from this successful partnership.”