BioPharma, Pharma, Startups

Inside Takeda’s R&D transformation

Deals and acquisitions, filling in pipeline gaps, externalizing assets that are no longer a good fit. What really goes on when pharma companies restructure their R&D approach?

New leaf, makeover, Before and after photographs

Big Pharma isn’t great at innovating. As proof, a 2016 study by Deloitte found large pharmaceutical companies are now generating a meager 3.7 percent return on internal R&D investments.

What they can do, is be innovative with acquisitions and partnerships.

That’s the approach Takeda Pharmaceuticals is taking as it embarks upon a multi-year “organization transformation,” doubling-down on three key therapeutic areas.

If you’ve seen them in the news recently, that’s probably why. Just this year, Takeda Oncology announced deals with LegoChem Biosciences, Maverick Therapeutics and a $5.2 billion acquisition of Ariad Pharma, all timed with the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

As a senior director of business development for Takeda Oncology, Perrin Wilson helped lead the Takeda team in assessing and negotiating the Ariad deal. During a phone interview, Wilson explained the strategic approach Takeda is now taking, as it cuts assets and replenishes its pipeline anew.

Business development now falls within Takeda’s Center for External Innovation. That encapsulates the oncology unit, as well as separate divisions scouting for opportunities in gastrointestinal and central nervous system disorders. Other individuals work on externalizing programs within Takeda’s existing pipeline that are no longer a strategic fit.

Takeda Ventures, the company’s more traditional investment group, also operates within the Center for External Innovation.

Logistics and org charts aside, there has been a significant overhaul in the way the company approaches deals. Business flexibility is now a core pillar.

“I think it’s a change in how Takeda views partnerships, which I think has been very well received from our partners’ perspective,” Wilson explained. “We don’t go into a deal with any preconceived notions of how it’s going to fit.”

As an example, she points to the company’s February 2016 deal with Mersana Therapeutics to co-develop and commercialize an armed antibody drug conjugate (ADC). Mersana had deep expertise in ADC conjugation and was competently progressing the program towards filing an IND, she said. 

“We decided for the program, to keep the speed and to keep it moving towards patients, that it was best left with Mersana.”

The External Innovation team has a license to invest, partner and acquire companies at any development stage, from preclinical to commercialized programs. Quite often, this demands a different approach to negotiating terms.

A lot of early-stage companies are looking for a partner that can take over development once the candidates hit the clinic, Wilson said. They’re focused on research exclusively.

“For oncology companies, particularly those that are public or near going public, a lot of them do want to hold onto U.S. rights,” she said. “So it’s a trade-off. The U.S. is a big piece of the value proposition, but if it’s right and it makes sense, we would do a regional deal — as we did with Mersana Therapeutics.”

Mersana has retained U.S. commercialization rights to the shared ADC.

So why did Takeda persevere with the deal? What “makes sense” as it strives to build a complete pipeline?

Wilson said Takeda Oncology is looking to fill strategic gaps in both therapeutic areas and drug modalities.

While the company is well established in the blood cancer space, there is a desire to expand more decisively into solid tumors. This was part of the appeal of Ariad deal.

“We do have a couple of products in solid tumors but they’re more regional,” Wilson explained. “Ariad represented a true global solid tumor opportunity for us, upon which we could build.”

As for the therapeutic mechanism, the company is open about its plan to move into immuno-oncology and more targeted therapeutics.

“Historically, Takeda was very focused on small molecules,” Wilson said. “And you can see through our deals we’re also moving into different areas; biologics, whether it be through ADCs, antibodies or like with Maverick, where it’s really T-cell engagement.”

With a wealth of partnerships and deals, Takeda may be able to align itself more with biotech innovation and results, than the struggling Big Pharma model that reins today.

Photo: mattjeacock, Getty Images

Shares0
Shares0