Overview

Synaptic Pharmaceutical Corp. is a drug discovery company using its G protein-coupled receptors as targets for novel therapeutics and as a basis for the creation of drugs that act through these targets. Its research programs are in the areas of the central nervous system, metabolic and urologic disorders, including depression, obesity, diabetes and incontinence.

Technology used in its drug discovery programs consists of genomics and functional genomics. Synaptic has created a Universal Functional Assay, which reduces the time and cost, compared to traditional methods, for the identification of endogenous ligands. The company believes that knowing the endogenous ligand for the receptor provides pharmacological insights that are important in determining whether a given receptor will be a valuable drug discovery target.

Synaptic has a GPCR-based chemical library of approximately 40,000 distinct structures that can be used in high-throughput screening.

The company’s SNAP Discovery platform technologies are used to facilitate the creation of new drugs. Synaptic uses contract research organizations, academic laboratories and pharmaceutical companies to move its programs forward into the late preclinical, as well as the clinical phases, of the drug development process.

Partners

Synaptic is collaborating with Grunenthal GmbH on discovering compounds for the alleviation of pain and with Kissei Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. to identify novel G protein-coupled receptors that can provide new drug discovery targets for Kissei. Eli Lilly and Co., Novartis Pharma AG, Glaxo Group Ltd. and The R.W. Johnson Research Institute, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, also have been granted licenses by Synaptic.