Pathios Therapeutics and Sygnature Discovery have signed a strategic and innovative partnership to develop therapies for autoimmune disease and immuno-oncology. The two UK companies will collaborate on an integrated drug discovery programme to modulate drug target GPR65, that is a causal factor in the two disease fields.
According to the terms of the collaboration, Sygnature will use their expertise in bioscience of the drug target and medicinal chemistry to expand Pathios’ current hit-to-lead, early-stage drug discovery programme.
Sygnature will also be deploying their computational chemistry, library design and synthesis and medium throughput screening capability to broaden Pathios’ hit findings. As part of this agreement, Sygnature will receive equity in addition to fees.
Commenting on the announcement, Simon Hirst, Sygnature CEO, said: “We are excited about the potential for GPR65 modulation to be central to new treatments for autoimmune disease and a critical mechanism of action in next-generation immune-oncology drugs targeting the tumour micro-environment.”
GPR65 is a type of G Protein-Coupled Receptor (GPCR) membrane protein that exhibits characteristics that can contribute to autoimmune diseases and in recently published studies, cancer immune evasion.
Adding to the collaboration, Tom McCarthy, Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Pathios, said: “In addition to developing potent and selective drugs to modulate GPR65, we are continuing to broaden the understanding of the fundamental biological processes that link to GPR65’s effects in Th17 cells, TAMs and other cell types.”