Domain Therapeutics and 5 SATTs Announce an Innovative Commercial and Scientific Partnership to Accelerate Drug Development in France

The signing of master agreements between the French biopharma company Domain Therapeutics and the 5 regional technology transfer accelerator organisations or SATTs (Sociétés d’Accélération du Transfert de Technologies) aims to encourage identification of the most promising pharmaceutical research projects in their territories corresponding to Domain’ scope of interest and to co-develop them with Domain Therapeutics in order to accelerate scientific and commercial development.

Domain Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the research and development of medicines for central nervous system diseases and cancers, announces the signing of partnership agreements with five SATTs: Aquitaine Science Transfert, Conectus Alsace, Ouest Valorisation, SATT Sud-Est and Toulouse Tech Transfer. These partnerships will enable the most promising research projects in these SATT territories to benefit from Domain Therapeutics' scientific and commercial development expertise in order to maximize the opportunities of achieving proof of concept in man.

A brand new agreement

Domain Therapeutics has deep and broad experience in the development of discovery projects up to the stage of preclinical candidates, coupled with the creation of single-asset companies to further develop the programme. Once clinical efficacy in humans has been proven, the aim is for these companies to be acquired by large pharmaceutical companies.

In return for its commitment, Domain Therapeutics will have an exclusive license option for the development and commercial exploitation of an identified project. "This strategy is part of our will to strengthen Domain Therapeutics' business by developing our portfolio of drug candidates," said Pascal Neuville, CEO of Domain Therapeutics, "with the quality of projects in the SATTs, we are confident that we will be able to replicate the success we have generated with our own internal programs ".

This innovative model will allow projects from French public research to move through the preclinical and early clinical stages to proof of concept in humans. "These steps constitute the missing links in the development of therapeutic innovations between the early proof of concept phase of the SATT and the further development and commercialisation of the project by the pharmaceutical industry", says Nicolas Carboni, President of Conectus Alsace, "with their innovative model and their proven development expertise skills, Domain Therapeutics will certainly add value to our programs, bringing larger financial returns for public research and the SATTs "adds Vincent Lamande, President of Ouest Valorisation.

According to the model, the SATT from where a project originates, will be a shareholder, alongside Domain Therapeutics and other investors, in the single-product company created, benefiting from the sale of this company over and above the traditional license revenues.

The SATTs: innovation suppliers

The SATTs, which are responsible for developing projects from public research laboratories, are at the crossroads of regional innovation. "They invest in the early development of the most commercially promising scientific discoveries in order to make technical and scientific results more reliable and to secure the transfer of technologies to the socio-economic environment," explains Laurent Baly, President of SATT Sud-Est. The SATTs involved have so far invested € 116 million in 601 mature projects, resulting in 87 start-ups created and 323 licenses signed.

The partnership with Domain Therapeutics will allow these projects to overcome the obstacles often seen: "In the healthcare sector, projects are often too early to be developed by the major pharmaceutical groups or to justify the creation of start-ups, "comments Pierre Dufresne, President of Toulouse Tech Transfer. "Additionally, the difficulty of finding experience managers to carry out these projects can make the future of these young companies uncertain and does not encourage venture capitalists to support their growth," concludes Maylis Chusseau, President of Aquitaine Science Transfert. These are structural weaknesses that this partnership will overcome.

About the SATTs

Created under the Investments in the Future Program (PIA), the Technology Transfer Accelerators (SATTs) provide the link between public research laboratories and private companies. The SATTS are owned by public shareholders (such as CDC, Universities, CNRS, Inserm ...) and are responsible for detecting innovations in laboratories, identifying market needs and, thanks to their investment, to mature projects and to accompany them through the negotiation and transfer of intellectual property from the laboratory to the private sector. The agreement with Domain Therapeutics concerns SATTs where an substantial part of their portfolio are health projects:

-    Aquitaine Science Transfer (Headquarters in Talence, chaired by Maylis Chusseau),

-    Conectus Alsace (Headquarters in Illkirch-Graffenstaden, chaired by Nicolas Carboni),

-    Ouest Valorisation (Headquarters in Rennes, chaired by Vincent Lamande),

-    SATT Sud-Est (Headquarters in Marseille, chaired by Laurent Baly),

-    Toulouse Tech Transfer (Headquarters in Toulouse, chaired by Pierre Dufresne)

About Domain Therapeutics

Created in 2008, Domain Therapeutics is a biotech company known for its research and development of drugs for central nervous system diseases and cancers. Headed by Pascal Neuville, it employs 40 people in France and in Canada, and generating more than 8 million euros in revenues in 2016. One of the company's ambitions is to bring drugs to the market from its own research but also from academic laboratories with known excellence. This is done through the creation of a dedicated company around a project, and driving forward the development up to the proof of clinical effectiveness in humans. The objective is then to license the program or sell the company to a large pharmaceutical company with the means to bring the product to market. Three of the company's internally discovered products are currently being developed by Prexton Therapeutics (Phase II), Kaldi Pharma (preclinical) and Mavalon Therapeutics (selected drug candidate), and projects from public institutions are being developed by Peptimimesis Pharma and SeaGull Therapeutics (preclinical).

DOMAIN THERAPEUTICS

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