Former Novartis execs launch new investment fund Aditum and set up Tempero Bio with Sosei

Aditum Bio, the biotech investment firm co-founded in 2019 by former Novartis chief executive Joe Jimenez and former president of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) Dr Mark Fishman, today announced the formation of Tempero Bio, a portfolio company developing a new neuroscience drug for the treatment of substance use disorders and anxiety, often neglected fields in drug development, to help address significant treatment gaps for patients.

Tempero Bio is being formed in partnership with Japan’s Sosei Heptares (TYO: 4565), the company from which the drug TMP-301 was in-licensed. Tempero Bio has in-licensed exclusive global rights to Sosei Heptares’ mGlu5 negative allosteric modulator (NAM) program to develop therapies targeting substance use disorders and anxiety.

Under the terms of the agreement, Tempero Bio will obtain exclusive global rights to a portfolio of potent, orally available metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGlu5) NAM modulators, including HTL0014242, which were precision-designed by Sosei Heptares using its GPCR structure-based drug eesign (SBDD) platform. The candidate HTL0014242 has been renamed TMP-301.