January 23, 2012

Today ZoBio and Heptares Therapeutics announce a collaboration to discover fragment ligands for Heptares’ stabilised GPCRs or StaRs^®. Under the agreement, ZoBio will first develop methods to rapidly extract and immobilize a GPCR target designated by Heptares. Subsequently, ZoBio will apply its proprietary TINS technology to screen a library of drug fragments for specific binding to the target.

Gregg Siegal, CSO of ZoBio said “We are proud that Heptares, a company that defines the state of the art in applying fragment-based drug discovery to GPCRs, has selected ZoBio as a partner. This project continues our relationship with Heptares which has already produced first such as allosteric ligands for the adenosine A2A receptor.”

Fiona Marshall, CSO of Heptares said “The ZoBio TINS technology in combination with StaRs® provides a unique method to discover hits to previously intractable GPCRs. We are delighted to extend our previously very successful academic collaboration with ZoBio to now screen important drug targets. ”

About ZoBio
ZoBio uses the method of fragment-based drug discovery to provide validated, biologically active compounds against challenging drug targets. Beginning with its proprietary Target Immobilized NMR Screening (TINS) platform, with its unparalleled sensitivity and reliability, ZoBio integrates both industry standard and unique, novel biophysical approaches with biochemical assays and structural biology into a platform that has a proven track record. ZoBio is dedicated to providing its customers the best science and compounds in a manner that fits within their workflow.

CONTACT

ZoBio BV
Gregg Siegal
Chief Scientific Officer
Tel: +31 71 527 4543
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About Heptares Therapeutics

Heptares is a pioneer in the discovery of new medicines targeting G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a super-family of proteins linked to many human diseases. Leveraging a revolutionary discovery engine, Heptares obtains unprecedented insight into GPCR biology and design novel drugs that selectively modulate clinically important, yet historically intractable, GPCR drug targets. Using this approach, the Company is building a pipeline of first-in-class and best-in-class GPCR-targeted medicines, with a focus on CNS and metabolic indications as core franchise areas. Heptares has raised over $40 million from leading life science investors and has formed strategic alliances with AstraZeneca, MedImmune, Shire, Takeda and Novartis.

The Heptares technology platform represents a unique GPCR capability in the industry today, opening up new possibilities for both small molecule and antibody therapeutics across the GPCR target universe. Heptares is the first and only company transforming GPCRs, which are typically highly unstable when removed from cellular membranes, into stabilised receptors or StaRs®. StaRs® enable GPCR structures in their natural pharmacological conformations to be determined, thereby overcoming a major historical barrier to structure-based GPCR drug discovery. Heptares has also invented Biophysical Mapping™, which provides superior elucidation of GPCR-ligand interactions, and has engineered new fragment-based and in silico technologies specifically tailored to GPCR lead discovery and optimisation. These technology breakthroughs, coupled with deep expertise in GPCR chemistry and biology, form the nucleus of a powerful and fully-integrated drug discovery platform.

To learn more about the Heptares pipeline and technology platform, please visit www.heptares.com