BioWorld International Correspondent

LONDON - Heptares Therapeutics Ltd. has been spun out by the UK's Medical Research Council (MRC) to capitalize on new techniques for determining the structure of G protein-couple receptors (GPCRs) without the need to crystallize them first.

The company, which has seed funding from MVM Life Sciences Partners, is headed by Malcolm Weir, former CEO of informatics specialist Inpharmatica Ltd.

The amount of seed money was not disclosed, but Weir told BioWorld International it is a "decent amount." The work is still at an early stage, and Weir said the plan is to spend the next couple of years grooming the company for a formal venture capital round in the "classic spinout paradigm."

GPCRs are the target of many marketed drugs, but being membrane-bound they are notoriously difficult to handle and to crystallize.

Heptares will build on the work of structural biologist Richard Henderson, director of the MRC's Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. With colleagues, he is pioneering the use of single particle electron microscopy to determine the atomic structures of large protein assemblies without the need to make a crystal.

The company also is pulling in intellectual property based on the work carried out at the MRC's National Institute of Medical Research in London. Weir said the goal is to use the protein structures to build a fully fledged therapeutics company with its own discovery and development capabilities.

Heptares will focus on central nervous system and metabolic disorders. There are GPCR targets in most diseases, but Weir said those two indications were selected as areas of greatest unmet medical need and where Heptares' technology will give it a particular advantage.

"We want to work in targets with the highest level of validation," he said.

It is too soon to say what the company's commercialization model will be. "We are exploring our options at the moment, so it is too early to say what kind of partnerships we will look for or how much money we will aim to raise in the first round," Weir added.

MVM is not known for making seed investments. Martin Murphy, partner in the firm said, "Investing in early stage biotechnologies carries a high risk and so we make relatively few such investments. However, it is clear that if Heptares' technologies can be successfully industrialized as a consequence of our seed funding, the company has the potential to create the kind of high value necessary to balance such risks."

Since leaving Inpharmatica at the end of 2006, Weir has been working as a consultant to MRCT Ltd., the technology transfer arm of the MRC. For the last seven months he has concentrated on the formation of Heptares.

"This is a nice case study of how you can go from exciting laboratory-based research into something of high commercial value," he said.

"Putting the company together has been made easier by the like-mindedness of all the individuals involved and the fact there are no bits and pieces of intellectual property to pin down. The MRC owns it all."