Domain Therapeutics, Université de Montréal, IRICoR and McGill University extend licensing and partnership agreement on G Protein-Coupled Receptor biosensor technology
Domain Therapeutics will get exclusive access to a new set of more powerful biosensors that will facilitate profiling of more effective and safer drug candidates
Strasbourg, France, and Montreal, Canada, September 27, 2016 – Domain Therapeutics, a France – and Quebec – based biopharmaceutical company that specializes in the research and development of new drug candidates that target G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), announces today the signing of a second licensing and partnership agreement on GPCR biosensor technology with Université de Montréal (UdeM) and its commercialization unit, the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer – Commercialization of Research (IRICoR), as well as with McGill University (McGill). The first licencing agreement was signed at the end of 2013.
The novel GPCR biosensor technology was developed by a team of researchers from UdeM’s Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) led by Pr. Michel Bouvier, and from McGill, led by Pr. Stéphane Laporte. Drs. Bouvier and Laporte are internationally renowned for their work on GPCRs.
The agreement gives Domain Therapeutics exclusive access to a new set of more powerful biosensors developed by Drs. Bouvier and Laporte.
This new approach, based on the existing BioSens-All™ technology which was initially licensed from UdeM and McGill, makes it possible to assess more intracellular signalling pathways and to discriminate more accurately the functional activation associated with specific GPCRs, which will accelerate the discovery and development of biased ligands for this class of receptors.
With this novel generation of biosensors, Domain Therapeutics North America Inc., the Canadian affiliate of Domain Therapeutics, will complete its unique service offering in profiling drug candidates for the pharma and biotech industries. Domain Therapeutics also leverages a screening platform called DTect-All™, designed to discover allosteric modulator drugs that target GPCRs. By combining the two technologies, Domain Therapeutics can discover and optimize more effective and safer therapeutic candidates for its internal programs and for collaborative programs with industry partners.
“We are very proud of our long-standing relationship with Drs. Bouvier and Laporte, which has directly led to this second license between our organizations,” said Pascal Neuville, Chief Executive Officer of Domain Therapeutics. “Exclusive access to this unique technology further strengthens Domain’s leading position in the field of GPCRbased drug discovery and drug profiling.”
“We are very pleased to extend our existing and very productive partnership with Domain Therapeutics, which resulted in the creation of Domain Therapeutics North 2 America,” said Nadine Beauger, IRICoR’s Chief Executive Officer. “It is our obvious partner for further promising development of this novel technology.”
Under the terms of the agreement with the UdeM, Domain Therapeutics will make an upfront payment on signing. The company will also pay an annual access fee for the technology, as well as royalties on income earned from sales of screening services and sales of drugs resulting from its own research and partnership activities. Domain Therapeutics will also provide financial support for the discovery of new biosensors. No other financial details have been disclosed.
“The innovative research developed by Michel Bouvier, an internationally-recognized expert in basic molecular pharmacology demonstrates the translational value of the work being carried out at IRIC with the support of IRICoR,” said Dr. Marie-Josée Hebert, Vice-Rector of Research, Development, Creation and Innovation at UdeM.
“McGill University has a long history of innovation and product development in numerous fields, especially the life sciences,” said Dr. Rose Goldstein, McGill’s VicePrincipal (Research and Innovation). “We very much look forward to continuing this tradition through our partnership with Domain Therapeutics and Université de Montréal – a collaboration that has the potential to create new and better treatments for patients.”
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