Modulus Discovery Announces Signing of Research Data Transfer Agreement with Astellas Pharma Inc.

TOKYO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Modulus Discovery, Inc. (CEO: S. Roy Kimura, Ph.D., “Modulus”), an early
stage global biopharmaceutical company, announced today the signing of
research data transfer agreement on a specific drug target with Astellas
Pharma Inc. (TSE: 4503, President and CEO: Kenji Yasukawa, Ph.D.,
“Astellas”).

Under the terms of the agreement, Modulus plans to design, evaluate and
optimize lead compounds for this target to rapidly identify a novel
clinical candidate through leveraging its cutting-edge computational
drug discovery platform.

Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, Modulus owns all rights to any
small molecules that Modulus develops based on the provided data set.
Astellas will retain certain rights including a priority negotiation
right for a certain period of time on clinical candidate compounds
identified through Modulus’ research based on the provided data.

This agreement demonstrates Modulus’ unique approach to accessing and
unlocking the value of existing preclinical opportunities in the
industry which have been deprioritized or terminated due to technical
reasons or changes in corporate strategy, and applying its proprietary
computational technology platform and networked drug discovery model to
efficiently deliver clinical candidates to market. Through this effort,
Modulus hopes to further its mission to “accelerate the discovery of new
medicines for patients and their families“ in need.

Comment from S. Roy Kimura, Ph.D., CEO, Modulus Discovery, Inc.
“We
are very excited to have this opportunity to make full use of
proprietary drug discovery data on one of the key drug targets from
Astellas, a leading global pharmaceutical company contributing to the
health of people around the world. By taking advantage of our mutual
expertise within this novel drug discovery framework, we hope to
continue to expand the value and clinical relevance of our drug
discovery pipeline to efficiently deliver novel clinical candidates for
patients in need.”

About Modulus Discovery, Inc.
Modulus Discovery is a private
Tokyo-based preclinical stage drug discovery company focused on rapid
design and generation of small molecule clinical candidates for a range
of high-value disease targets through the use of its cutting-edge
computational drug discovery expertise and unique biology insights. The
international team at Modulus is comprised of drug design and disease
biology experts with previous R&D experience at global pharmaceutical,
biotechnology, and computational technology firms. For further
information, please visit www.modulusdiscovery.com.

Contacts

Enquiries:
Modulus Discovery, Inc.
Takashi Kanda
+81-3-6868-4547 (Tokyo)
Email: [email protected]