License to Pill: Takeda, Roche ink gene therapy deals

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. continued to expand its pipeline of gene and cell therapies with two licensing deals between Oct. 9 and Oct. 22.

The Japanese pharmaceutical giant paid Poseida Therapeutics Inc. $45 million up front to use the San Diego-based biotech's gene engineering technology to develop up to eight therapies for conditions that affect the liver or hematopoietic stem cells, which are found in blood and bone marrow.

"This partnership reinforces Takeda's commitment to investing in next-generation gene therapy approaches that have the potential to deliver functional cures to patients with rare genetic and hematologic diseases," said Madhu Natarajan, head of Takeda's rare diseases drug discovery unit.

The Tokyo-based company will also make an undisclosed payment to privately owned Immusoft Corp. to use the Seattle-based biotech's platform to develop and commercialize cell therapies for rare inherited metabolic disorders that affect the central nervous system.

Other deals over the two-week period included Roche Holding AG's gene therapy-focused Spark Therapeutics unit paying CombiGene AB (publ) $8.5 million up front for the exclusive license to develop, manufacture and commercialize the Swedish company's drug CG01, which is designed to treat drug-resistant epilepsy.

Johnson & Johnson's Janssen unit will pay British biotech F-star Therapeutics Inc. $17.5 million up front for the exclusive license to research, develop and commercialize up to five novel bispecific antibodies created by the cancer-focused company's antibody platforms.

London-based Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals PLC agreed to pay Eli Lilly and Co. $250,000 up front to license one of its own bispecific antibodies, in this case the U.S. pharmaceutical giant's blood cancer drug CDX.

Privately owned German pharmaceuticals company Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH will pay Oxford Biomedica PLC a £3.5 million up-front option exercise fee for the British biotech's cystic fibrosis drug BI 3720931, under the terms of a 2018 agreement.

Meanwhile, Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. signed two deals to secure the Chinese rights to small interfering RNA therapies, handing over a combined total of $22.5 million in up-front payments to London-based Silence Therapeutics PLC and South Korea's OliX Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Fellow Chinese pharmaceutical company Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co. Ltd. secured the license in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau to two drugs from Switzerland's Helsinn Healthcare SA that have been approved for chemotherapy-induced and postoperative nausea and vomiting. Fosun also obtained the license to two products under development for chemotherapy-induced nausea and weight loss in lung cancer patients.