Domain Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the research and development of new drug candidates targeting G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), has opened its North American subsidiary, Domain Therapeutics NA Inc., at the NEOMED Institute in Montreal, Canada.

Establishing a presence for Domain Therapeutics in Montreal is part of the company's strategy for bringing to market a new GPCR-specific biosensor technology, BioSens-All. BioSens-All technology enables a deeper understanding of the signalling pathways that are activated by each candidate molecule and thus predict its pharmacological profile.

The technology was developed in the molecular pharmacology research unit headed by Professor Michel Bouvier at the Universite de Montreal's (UdeM) Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC). Domain Therapeutics will work in close partnership with the inventors of the technology at UdeM and McGill University.

A license agreement between UdeM, McGill University and Domain Therapeutics for GPCR-specific biosensor technology was signed at the end of 2013(1). The exclusive focus of activity at Domain Therapeutics NA Inc. will be R&D for its own projects and for those the company undertakes in collaboration with industry partners.

Domain Therapeutics' presence in North America reflects the company's desire to expand. The geographical proximity of Domain Therapeutics' subsidiary will help to secure new partnerships with Canadian and US companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

"The move to Canada's NEOMED Institute marks an important milestone in the life of our company,” said Pascal Neuville, board director and CEO of Domain Therapeutics. “We are confident that this foothold will help us to build strategic relationships with North American companies and to use the BioSens-All technology to accelerate the development of our projects."

The NEOMED Institute is a dedicated centre of excellence for drug R&D. It offers a high quality environment with access to highly specialized equipment. It also encourages synergies between resident companies leading to collaborative projects. One year from inception, the Institute is now host to 15 companies.

"We are delighted to welcome Domain Therapeutics into the NEOMED Institute and are confident that its research work will be successful," said Max Fehlmann, president and CEO of the NEOMED Institute. "Following on from an initial license agreement with local organizations, we think that other opportunities for collaborations will emerge and that joint research programs will be set up with our resident companies."

"We are very pleased that Domain Therapeutics has decided to open this subsidiary in Montreal and to take advantage of the facilities at the NEOMED Institute. This initiative will expedite the process of bringing to market an important element of the IRIC technology portfolio," said Steven Klein, vice-president, business development at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer – Commercialization of Research (IRICoR). "Our continuing collaboration with Domain Therapeutics and with our research partners, particularly Professor Bouvier, along with researchers at McGill, Universite de Sherbrooke and the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Centre, will also help to produce additional novel biosensors, which will further strengthen the Company’s BioSens-All platform."

The BioSens-All technology is the second technology acquired by Domain Therapeutics. The company also owns DTect-All, a specialist screening platform for the discovery of innovative drugs that target GPCRs. With these two complementary, proprietary technologies to its name, Domain Therapeutics is positioning itself as a key international player in the discovery of drugs for GPCRs.

GPCRs belong to the family of membrane receptors and constitute one of the main classes of therapeutic targets for many indications of the central nervous system, metabolic disorders and cardiovascular, respiratory, urinary or gastrointestinal diseases.