Receptos, Inc., a drug discovery and development company, announced today the establishment of a collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company to research and develop small molecule modulators of an undisclosed GPCR target. The companies will jointly identify potential orally administered candidates for the collaborative target and advance them into pre-clinical development based on shared structure-based drug design efforts that employ Receptos's proprietary technology for determining GPCR crystal structure, exclusively licensed to Receptos from The Scripps Research Institute. Financial details of the collaboration were not disclosed.
“The lead-generation focus of the collaboration aligns with our company's strategic plan to contribute to the development of therapeutically relevant candidates for high-value targets, while maintaining freedom to conduct our own drug development, either with partners or on an independent basis.”
GPCRs have become one of the largest classes of drug targets, and the majority of currently marketed therapeutics are directed to this family of receptors. Despite these successes, traditional drug discovery methods have failed to identify small molecule product candidates for many GPCR targets.
"This collaboration with Lilly, an industry leader who has successfully developed expertise in structure-based drug design, demonstrates Receptos's leadership position in the area of structure-determination specifically for GPCR targets," said Faheem Hasnain, President and Chief Executive Officer of Receptos. "The lead-generation focus of the collaboration aligns with our company's strategic plan to contribute to the development of therapeutically relevant candidates for high-value targets, while maintaining freedom to conduct our own drug development, either with partners or on an independent basis."
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