BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

Heptares, Medicxi spin out narcolepsy companies

February 7, 2019 6:57 PM UTC

The Heptares Therapeutics Ltd. unit of Sosei Group Corp. (Tokyo:4565) partnered with life sciences VC Medicxi Ventures to spin out two asset-centric newcos, Orexia Ltd. and Inexia Ltd., to develop preclinical orexin agonists to treat rare sleeping disorder narcolepsy.

Under the deal, Medicxi has committed to invest up to €40 million ($45.8 million) in a tranched investment across both companies, although the total investment for each was not broken out. Each company is taking a different approach to delivery of the molecules: Orexia is developing oral small molecules, while Inexia is developing an intranasal formulation of orexin agonists using the OptiNose Exhalation delivery system...