Strasbourg, France, December 4, 2018 – Domain Therapeutics announces a multi-target drug discovery collaboration and licensing agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim on orphan G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) in the Central Nervous System (CNS) disease area. The collaboration combines the expertise of Domain Therapeutics, a French and Canadian biopharmaceutical company, in the discovery of GPCR targeting drugs in CNS, oncology and immuno-oncology, with Boehringer Ingelheim’s expertise in the discovery and clinical development of therapeutics on multiple indications.

Domain Therapeutics will use its proprietary platforms, DTect-All™ and bioSens-All™, which enable a comprehensive characterization of small molecule GPCR binders for the screening and characterization of potential lead compounds. In addition, Domain brings on board its extensive network of leading GPCR experts to provide additional knowledge and insight to the discovery phase (Prof. Brigitte Kieffer, Douglas Institute – Montreal, Canada and Prof. Michel Bouvier, IRIC Institute – Montreal, Canada).

Domain will be eligible for an upfront payment, discovery, development and commercial milestone payments as well as royalties on sales. Financial details are not disclosed.

“We are excited to initiate the collaboration with Domain Therapeutics, a leading player in the GPCR space. This collaboration helps us to bolster our CNS research efforts,” says Dr Bernd Sommer, Global Head, CNS Diseases Research. “We have a valuable partner with complementary expertise and key technologies that allow us to accelerate research and development in this area of great unmet medical need.”

“With its focus on emerging science and breakthrough medicines, we are enthusiastic to be working with Boehringer Ingelheim,” says Pascal Neuville, CEO of Domain Therapeutics. “We believe that our approach and technologies will allow for the identification of new drug candidates against these challenging targets, and, coupled with Boehringer Ingelheim’s strength and expertise, their rapid advancement into the clinic.”

About G Protein-Coupled Receptors 
GPCRs belong to the family of membrane receptors and constitute one of the main classes of therapeutic targets for many indications. The binding of a hormone or a specific ligand to a receptor’s binding site activates one or several pathways for intracellular signaling. This enables the cell to provide an adapted response to the change in its environment. The many drugs that target GPCRs represent about 40% of all treatments on the market, but only address 15% of GPCRs. Thus, GPCRs remain largely underexploited to date.

Such receptors are widely expressed in the central nervous system where they play critical roles in regulating brain functions. A significant number of GPCRs are orphan receptors with no known ligand, making the corresponding drug discovery effort particularly challenging. Such complex targets are not addressable with conventional drug discovery approaches and require dedicated technologies.