Receptos, a biopharmaceutical company, has announced that Ono Pharmaceuticals has elected to amend and expand the existing collaboration agreement between the parties to include transfer to Ono of the Receptos G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) technology platform, a proprietary high resolution protein crystal structure determination technology which enables rational drug design for the GPCR therapeutic target class.
Under the terms of the collaboration agreement amendment, Receptos will grant Ono a non-exclusive sublicense to intellectual property relating to the technology, including patent applications and proprietary know-how.
Receptos will also conduct a program to transfer technology to Ono, including efforts to determine a protein crystal structure solution for an additional novel GPCR that is a proprietary Ono drug discovery target. In return, Ono will make payments to Receptos including an upfront fee and milestones relating to successful technology transfer. Remaining research and development milestones directed to an Ono proprietary target designated under the existing collaboration agreement will remain eligible for achievement.
Receptos president and CEO Faheem Hasnain noted the expansion of the Ono-Receptos collaboration highlights the continued delivery of valuable scientific expertise to our partners.
"Transferring our proprietary GPCR technology provides non-dilutive capital to Receptos, and demonstrates our dedication to innovation in GPCR therapeutics by enabling our strategic partners in the proprietary technology to facilitate rational drug design for this important target class," Hasnain added.
Receptos is the exclusive licensee of the GPCR crystal structure determination technology platform from The Scripps Research Institute and, together with scientific founder Dr Raymond Stevens, has an unparalleled publication record that includes the identification of 21 distinct GPCR structures of 13 unique receptors over the last five years.
Receptos utilizes rapid GPCR structure elucidation in combination with a suite of purified protein assays and traditional cell-based assays to provide an information-rich platform for GPCR drug discovery. Small-molecule chemistry efforts benefit from a multi-dimensional view of compound space, including direct structural information, iterative co-crystal determination, mapping of binding pocket mutations based on structural scaffolds and analysis of compound effect on receptor stability.
Antibody discovery efforts may also benefit from the availability of a purified active receptor population for use as an antigen for panning or immunization as well as the potential for generating antibody/receptor complex structures.
Several key attributes differentiate the Receptos platform, including the ability to quickly assess and optimize targets for high level expression, stability and crystallography feasibility in three to four months. Utilization of near wild-type GPCR domains for characterization and structure determination adds additional integrity to the crystallography process.
Receptos has proprietary intellectual property directed to a panel of purified protein assays to facilitate structure generation and early stage discovery. Through collaboration, our structural biologists have demonstrated a tight integration between discovery chemistry, cell biology and structural biology.
The Receptos proprietary GPCR drug discovery platform is available to collaborative partners for technology transfer and structure determination and drug discovery for specific GPCR targets. Receptos has an ongoing collaboration with Ono Pharmaceuticals and concluded partnerships with Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly.
