TOKYO & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sosei Group Corporation (“Sosei” or the “Company”) (TOKYO: 4565), the world leader in GPCR medicine design and development, today announced that Dr. Fiona Marshall has resigned from her position as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Sosei to assume a senior role outside the Company. Dr. Marshall will leave Sosei at the end of February 2018.
“As a co-founder of Heptares, I am very proud to have been associated with building a team of talented scientists over the past decade that has made many important breakthroughs in the field of GPCR stabilization and structure-based drug design, a unique technology that now underpins Sosei’s powerful drug discovery capability,” said Dr. Marshall. “With the team in excellent hands, I feel the time is right for me to move on to new challenges and I wish everyone at Sosei the best for what looks set to be an exciting future for the Company.”
Peter Bains, Chief Executive Officer of Sosei, added: “Fiona has been a pivotal figure in advancing the science of GPCR stabilization, and in creating Sosei StaR® technology, a legacy that in time we believe will lead to the development of new and innovative medicines. Thanks to Fiona, we have built a deep pool of talented scientists who will continue to carry on our world-leading work in GPCR-focused drug discovery and development and execute on our vision to become a fully integrated global biotechnology company. The Board and I express our sincere thanks to Fiona for her significant contributions to Sosei and wish her the very best in her exciting new role.”
Sosei’s R&D activities will continue under the leadership of Dr. Malcolm Weir, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Heptares, and Executive Vice President and Chief R&D Officer of Sosei.
Separately, and reflecting the progress of Sosei’s proprietary pipeline of drug development candidates, Dr. Tim Tasker is promoted to the Executive management team of Sosei as an Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Dr. Tasker will continue to report to Dr. Malcolm Weir, Chief R&D Officer.
Peter Bains commented: “Tim’s promotion is thoroughly deserved and reflects the increasing importance of clinical development expertise in the team. This expertise is crucial to supporting our partnered programs and more importantly to drive our proprietary programs, of which we plan to advance at least six candidates into clinical studies over the next two years, including HTL0018318, our selective muscarinic M1 agonist, which we expect to start a Phase II trial in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) in Japan during this year.”
About Sosei
Sosei is an international biopharmaceutical company focused on the design and development of new medicines originating from its proprietary GPCR-targeted StaR® technology and structure-based drug design platform capabilities. The Company is advancing a broad and deep pipeline of partnered and wholly owned product candidates in multiple therapeutic areas, including CNS, cancer, metabolic diseases and other rare/specialty indications. The Company’s leading clinical programs include a proprietary Phase II candidate for dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) in Japan, together with partnered candidates aimed at the symptomatic treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (with Allergan) and immuno-oncology approaches to treat cancer (with AstraZeneca). Sosei’s additional partners and collaborators include Novartis, Teva, Pfizer, Daiichi-Sankyo, PeptiDream, Kymab and MorphoSys. The Company is headquartered in Japan with R&D facilities in the UK.
Sosei is listed on the Mothers Index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TOKYO: 4565). For more information, please visit http://www.sosei.com/en/.
Sosei Forward-looking statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including statements about the discovery, development and commercialisation of products. Various risks may cause Sosei’s actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including: adverse results in clinical development programmes; failure to obtain patent protection for inventions; commercial limitations imposed by patents owned or controlled by third parties; dependence upon strategic alliance partners to develop and commercialise products and services; difficulties or delays in obtaining regulatory approvals to market products and services resulting from development efforts; the requirement for substantial funding to conduct research and development and to expand commercialisation activities; and product initiatives by competitors. As a result of these factors, prospective investors are cautioned not to rely on any forward-looking statements. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
