Heptares granted patents covering stabilised receptor technology in Europe and Japan
Key patent grants protect Heptares’ leading position in GPCR-targeted drug design and discovery
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Heptares Therapeutics announced that the first of a series of patent applications covering its methods for generating G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR) with increased conformational stability (StaR® technology) has resulted in patents being granted in Europe (EP2121919) and Japan (JP4842400). This patent family is also pending in the United States and in other territories worldwide.
This patent family broadly covers methods for transforming GPCRs, which are highly unstable when removed from cellular membranes, into stabilised forms (StaRs®) corresponding to selected pharmacologically relevant conformations using any method of mutagenesis, expression or assay. The unique properties of StaRs® have enabled Heptares to build a powerful and integrated platform designed to exploit, for the first time, the full range of structure-based approaches for drug discovery. 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.