Heptares Therapeutics Announces Agreement With Novartis Option Fund to Apply its StaR(TM) Technology and Generate Novel Drug Leads Against a G...(y to resolve GPCR structures and their e...)

The Novartis Option Fund invested GBP7 million in Heptares' GBP21 million fundraising announced in February 2009 in a syndicate with MVM Life Science Partners and Clarus Ventures.

About Heptares Therapeutics Ltd

Heptares is a drug discovery company focused on identifying novel drug candidates targeting validated G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in several disease areas. Based on its unique StaR(TM) technology platform, Heptares has built an integrated drug discovery capability and aims to progress promising candidates internally and through strategic alliances.

GPCRs are the single most important family of drug targets in the human body, but because of their inherent instability they are refractory to structural studies and biochemical screening. StaR technology enables the engineering of stabilised GPCRs, making them amenable to these vital drug discovery approaches. There are many clinically relevant GPCR targets across a wide range of therapeutic areas where discovery is advancing slowly and for which structural information, novel screening approaches and potential antibody therapeutics would greatly enhance progress.

Heptares was founded in 2007 and its StaR technology arose out of the pioneering work of Heptares' founding scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge, UK) and the National Institute for Medical Research (London, UK).

For more information, see http://www.heptares.com

About the Novartis Option Fund

The Novartis Option Fund is a $200 million fund that is part of the Novartis Venture Funds. Established in 1996, the Novartis Venture Funds currently manage over $750 million in committed capital a
'/>"/>