King of Prussia-based SEED Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on harnessing and engineering molecular glues for targeted protein degradation of disease-causing proteins, recently announced it is partnering with Eisai Co., a Japanese pharmaceutical company, to develop and commercialize novel molecular glue degraders.
Under the companies’ collaboration, SEED will lead preclinical activities for the selected targets while Eisai will have exclusive rights to develop and commercialize compounds. SEED will be entitled, upon Eisai’s exercise of their exclusive rights, to receive an upfront payment and pre-clinical, clinical, regulatory and sales milestone payments of up to $1.5 billion along with tiered royalties.
“Looking ahead, SEED’s unique molecular glue discovery platform on neurodegenerative disease will be further strengthened through our collaborations with both Eli Lilly and Eisai (under separate collaboration agreements), two global pioneers in the timely development of treatments for neurodegeneration, including approved therapies for Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Lan Huang, SEED co-founder, chairman, and CEO said.
In addition, SEED announced it has a target of closing on $24 million in Series A-3 financing from investors led by Eisai.
The company will use the funding for expanding its targeted protein degradation platform and pipeline, the clinical development of internal proprietary programs, and to supplement prior investments.