Sosei and IPJ to become Nxera Pharma from April
Nxera Pharma is the new name for Sosei Group Corporation following a meeting of the board directors on 15 February which approved a merger with Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Japan (IPJ).
IPJ was established under the leadership of Dr Satoshi Tanaka in 2018 to develop an innovation process that spans all stages from the discovery of a promising compound to the final commercialisation of the drug.
When Sosei acquired IPJ in July 2023, it acquired all the issued shares of IPJ and made it a wholly owned subsidiary with the strategic goal to expand the company’s operations in Japan.
The two companies were due to officially merge on 1 April, 2024, and then “decided to use the event to adopt a unified corporate brand and corporate name for the Group, including all subsidiaries”.
The April merger will be an absorption-type merger with IPJ as the surviving company and Sosei as the non-surviving company.
As part of the rollout of the Nexra – a melding of ‘next’ and ‘era’ – brand, the company’s head office will be moved to the same location as the head office of IPJ (Minato-ku, Tokyo) “to accelerate business integration and enhance operating efficiencies”.
Nxera describes “the company’s determination to be a leader in the next era of science and healthcare”, said the company in a statement issued on Friday (16 February), adding: “Nxera will be a technology-enabled pharma company that will challenge the status quo in its pursuit of better treatments for patients in need across multiple therapeutic areas.”
Chris Cargill, president and CEO of Sosei Heptares, said: “Our proposed name change from Sosei Group to Nxera Pharma marks a pivotal moment in our journey following multiple strategic acquisitions over the years, including Heptares Therapeutics in 2015 and the Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Japan (IPJ) business in 2023.
“These acquisitions have been transformational for the business and driven our development to become an integrated, technology-powered, commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on cutting-edge science and delivering life-changing medicines for patients in Japan and globally.
“The company has decided that this is the optimal time to adopt a new, unified corporate brand and corporate name for the group, including all subsidiaries.
“The name ‘Nxera’ derives from the words ‘next’ and ‘era’ to express our determination to be a leader in the next era of science and healthcare, driving advancements in our core disease areas of neurology, immunology and gastroenterology in pursuit of new medicines for patients.”
Sosei’s 35,000 sq ft facility Granta Park R&D facility, which opened in 2017, has become a world-leading centre for the design and development of novel medicines targeting GPCRs – the most important family of drug targets in the pharmaceutical industry and the source of more than 40 per cent of approved drugs.
