Biopharmaceutical company Neurocrine Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:NBIX) said on Tuesday that it plans to discover novel small molecule therapeutics for multiple targets for central nervous system (CNS) disorders under a research collaboration with Jnana Therapeutics Inc.

The partnership will leverage Jnana's proprietary drug discovery platform across the solute carrier (SLC) family of transporters and Neurocrine's research and development expertise in CNS disorders to advance new medicines. The companies will work jointly to identify novel compounds.

Neurocrine is responsible for further lead optimisation and the development and commercialisation of any potential therapies arising from the collaboration.

This agreement allows Jnana to receive one-time access to a subset of its compound library to screen for hits on a select number of non-CNS targets from Neurocrine.

Under the terms of the agreement, Jnana will receive an up-front payment and committed research funding to support discovery efforts as well as is eligible to receive milestone payments and royalties based upon products resulting from this collaboration.

SLCs, a supergroup of membrane proteins comprising more than 400 members arranged across more than 50 families. are the gatekeepers for metabolite pathways, controlling the movement of metabolites in and out of cells and organelles. SLCs play a crucial role in health and disease, concluded the company.