PrintTakeda Pharmaceuticals is teaming up with Intra-Cellular Therapies in a worldwide collaboration worth up to $750 million. The companies will develop and commercialize Intra-Cellular Therapies’ preclinical selective phosphodiesterase type 1 (PDE1) inhibitors for the treatment of cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia. ITI’s PDE1 inhibitors are orally available and have potential to be treatments for a variety of psychiatric and neurological diseases.
Under the agreement, U.S.-based Intra-Cellular will receive an undisclosed upfront payment upfront and will be eligible to receive up to $500 million upon achievement of certain development milestones and up to an additional $250 million upon achievement of certain sales-based milestones, plus tiered royalty payments based on net sales by Takeda. Takeda will be solely responsible for development, manufacturing and commercialization of PDE1 inhibitors. Intra-Cellular has retained the option to co-promote with Takeda in the United States.
Drugs to treat unmet medical needs for central nervous system disorders are one of Takeda’s core therapeutic focus areas. Japan’s largest pharmaceutical joins a growing list of Japanese pharmaceutical companies seeking outside innovation.
Earlier in the week Daiichi Sankyo, Japan’s third largest drug company, said it was acquiring privately-held Plexxikon for $805 million in upfront cash and $130 million more based on near-term launch milestones with respect to Plexxikon’s late-stage experimental therapy PLX4032 for malignant melanoma.
The Berkeley, California-based biotech has attracted attention in the past year based on the positive results from late-stage trials of PLX4032, a targeted cancer therapeutic partnered with Roche’s Genentech. The acquisition is in line with Daiichi Sankyo’s strategy to address diverse unmet medical needs, including personalizing medicine to maximize patient benefits. Interim results showed that it met its co-primary endpoints of overall survival and progression-free survival among patients with previously untreated metastatic melanoma expressing the BRAF mutation.
A regulatory filing for marketing approval is expected to be filed this year in Europe and the United States. With the acquisition, Daiichi will take over Plexxikon’s U.S. co-promotion rights in the United States, and gain entry to the lucrative U.S. oncology market. The deal came on the heels of Kyowa Hakka Kirin’s $474 million acquisition of British cancer drug developer Pro Strakan, and Astellas Pharma’s May 2010 $4 billion acquisition of OSI Pharmaceuticals.
Privately-held Japanese specialty pharma SymBio raised $24 million in a Series E financing led by existing investors Cephalon and Jafco Ventures. SymBio also looks for promising compounds outside Japan, which it can in-license for the Japanese market.
In San Diego, renewable chemicals company Genomatica announced it had raised $45 million in its fourth venture round, led by new investor VantagePoint Venture Partners with participation by new investors Bright Capital, part of Russia’s RU-COM Group and Waste Management, possibly the world’s biggest trash collector. Previous investors TPG Biotech, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Alloy Ventures, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson also participated. It brings the total investment in Genomatica to $84 million.
The funds will be used to complete demonstration-scale production and early commercialization plans for Genomatica’s first commercial product, Bio-BDO, a bio-based version of 1,4-butanediol (BDO) made from renewable feedstocks rather than oil or natural gas. BDO, an intermediate chemical with a $4 billion dollar market worldwide, is used to make spandex, automotive plastics, running shoes and more. Successful operation at demonstration scale during 2011 will validate organisms, processes and manufacturing economics, and allow development of the basic engineering package to be used in construction of Genomatica’s first commercial-scale plant, planned for operation in late 2013. The investment will also accelerate the development of additional major chemicals in Genomatica’s product pipeline.
Genomatica engineers E. coli to produce renewable chemicals from biomass, currently sugar, which are used to make plastics, and other products—a $4 billion global market. It plans to use the funds to complete a commercial-scale demonstration project and has plans to build and start operating a commercial plant by late 2013. In February, it entered into a partnership with Waste Management, now an investor, to develop ways to make its renewable chemicals from the synthetic gas created by municipal solid waste.
DEALS FOR THE WEEK ENDING MARCH 4, 2011
| Global Venture Financings | |||
| Company | Location | Amount Raised (USD M) | Principal Activity |
| Genomatica | San Diego, CA | 45.0 | Renewable chemicals |
| CardioFocus | Marlborough, MA | 30.6 | Medical devices |
| Cardiorobotics | Raynham, MA | 12.5 | Medical devices |
| NeuroPhage Pharmaceuticals | Cambridge, MA | 12.4 | Neurology |
| Tibion | Sunnyvale, CA | 10.2 | Bionic leg |
| AirXpanders | Palo Alto, CA | 8.0 | Tissue expansion |
| FluGen | Madison, WI | 7.8 | Drug delivery |
| Cardeas Pharma | Seattle, WA | 1.0 | Therapeutics |
| iAMscientist | Brookline, MA | 1.0 | Resource website |
| Biomatrica | San Diego, CA | N/A | Sample storage |
| Celmatix | New York, NY | N/A | Diagnostics |
| SymBio Pharmaceuticals | Tokyo, Japan | 24.0 | Hematology |
| Retina Implant | Reutlingen, Germany | 18.0 | Ophthalmic |
| Shijiazhuang Xingbai Pharmaceutical | Shijiazhuang, China | 18.0 | Biologics |
| Total Raised US | 128.5 | ||
| Total Raised Non-US | 60.0 | ||
| Grants and Contracts | |||
| Company | Funding Agency | Amount Raised (USD M) | Principal Activity |
| Grant | |||
| FiberCell | Maryland Industrial Partnerships | 0.3 | Bioreactor system |
| Oxygen Biotherapeutics | US Army | 2.1 | Traumatic brain injury |
| Starpharma Holdings | Victoria's STIUP | 0.3 | Agrochemicals |
| BioAlliance Pharma (France) | Fond Unique Intermisiteriel | 2.8 | Flu vaccine |
| Contracts | |||
| Novavax | HHS-BARDA 3 year base contract plus a 2-year option for another $82 million | 97.0 | Flu vaccines |
| VaxInnate | HHS-BARDA 3 year base contract plus a 2-year option for another $78.7 million | 118.0 | Flu vaccines |
| Total Grants and Contracts | 220.5 | ||
| Public Financings | |||
| Company | Ticker | Amount Raised (USD M) |
Financing Type |
| 4SC (Germany) | Xetra:VXC | 16.1 | PIPE |
| Biofrontera (Germany) | Xetra:B8F | 2.5 | PIPE |
| Zhejiang Hisoar Pharmaceutical (China) | SHE:002099 | 79.0 | PIPE |
| Tengion | TNGN | 31.4 | PIPE |
| TapImmune | OTC:TPIV | 1.2 | PIPE |
| BioSante Pharmaceuticals | BPAX | 25.1 | PIPE-RDO |
| ImmunoCellular Therapetuics | OTC:IMUC | 8.1 | Follow on |
| Rxi Pharmaceuticals | RXII | 8.1 | Follow on |
| ThermoGenesis | KOOL | 4.5 | Follow on |
| Thermo Fisher Scientific | TMO | 2,200.0 | Debt |
| Valeant Pharmaceuticals (Canada) | VRX | 1,500.0 | Debt |
| K-V Pharmaceutical | KVA | 200.0 | Debt |
| Intuity Medical | Private | 20.0 | Credit facility |
| Oncolytics Biotech (Canada) | TSX:ONC | 7.7 | Warrant exercise |
| Biovest International | Private | 1.5 | State of Minnesota and JMS Holdings loan |
| Total Public Financings-US | 2,499.9 | ||
| Total Public Financings-Non-US | 1605.3 | ||
| M&A | |||
| Acquirer | Target | Deal Value (USD M) |
Focus |
| Daiichi Sankyo (Japan) | Plexxikon | 935.0 | Cancer |
| Fujifilm (Japan) | Two Merck laboratories | 490.0 | Biomanufacturing |
| D.N.A. Biomedical Solutions (Israel) | Entera Bio (Oramed Pharma-Israel) | 1.2 | Oral drug delivery |
| Agilent Technologies | Lab901 | N/A | Tools/Technology |
| Agilent Technologies | Biocius Life Sciences | N/A | Tools/Technology |
| Mindray Medical (China) | Shenzhen Shenke Medical Instrument Technical Development (China) | N/A | Medical devices |
| Alliances | |||
| Company/Licenser | Company/Licensee | Deal Value (USD M) |
Focus |
| Intra-Cellular Therapies | Takeda Pharmaceutical (Japan) | 750.0 | Neurology collaboration |
| Lycera | Merck | 307.0 | Inflammation drug discovery collaboration |
| Almirall (Spain) | Kyorin Pharmaceutical (Japan) | 52.1 | Pulmonary drug license |
| Novavax | LG Life Sciences (South Korea) | N/A | VLP Vaccine technology license |
| Epigenomics (Germany) | Qiagen (Germany) | N/A | Diagnostics license |
| Nile Therapeutics | Medtronic | N/A | Cardiorenal therapeutic collaboration |
March 03, 2011
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-takeda_enters_schizophrenia_partnership.html
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