Japan-based pharmaceutical company Sosei has partnered healthcare venture capital fund Medicxi to form two new independent companies focused on treating neurological diseases.
Medicxi is investing a total of €40m ($45.8m) in the two companies, Orexia and Inexia, which are working on therapies meant to combat neurological diseases by altering G protein-coupled receptors Orexin OX1 and OX2.
The drugs are being developed to prevent the loss of orexin neurons, which have been linked to multiple neurological conditions including narcolepsy.
Both companies will obtain elated patents from Sosei, with Orexia focusing on oral drugs and Inexia working on an drugs that will be inhaled through the nose using a system developed by biotechnology company Optinose.
The Medicxi funding will be used to fund the progress of its the companies’ lead product candidates into clinical development and through to the proof-of-concept stage. Sosei will retain equity stakes in both and will receive royalties and other payments based on development milestones.
Orexia and Inexia have been created from a portfolio of programs Sosei secured from UK-based Alzheimer’s disease drug developer Heptares Therapeutics in 2015 when it acquired the company in a $400m transaction that enabled pharmaceutical firms Novartis and Takeda to exit.