Cell therapies made from a patient’s own immune cells found their first successes treating blood cancers. Getting T cells to treat solid tumors has been a tougher task. Maverick Therapeutics has just begun the first clinical test of its approach to T cell therapy, but Takeda Pharmaceutical sees enough promise in the technology to acquire the startup and the rest of its drug pipeline.
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The two companies have been research partners since a 2017 deal that infused Brisbane, California-based Maverick with $125 million to develop a type of drug called a T cell engager. That pact gave Takeda an exclusive option to acquire Maverick after five years. On Tuesday, the Japanese pharmaceutical giant announced it is exercising that buyout option.
The pre-negotiated upfront payment was not disclosed. Including potential development and regulatory milestones, Takeda said the deal’s value could reach $525 million. That sum could be adjusted, considering Takeda’s equity stake in Maverick and that company’s debt.
The class of cancer drugs known as CAR-T therapies are made by engineering a patient’s own immune cells so that they target a patient’s cancer. The first generation of CAR-T drugs so far have been approved only for treating blood cancers. In tests against solid tumors, these cell therapies also destroy healthy tissue.
Maverick is one of several companies trying to take T cell therapy to solid tumors with T cell engagers, a type of drug that directs a patient’s T cells to attack the cancer. The Maverick T cell engagers are bispecific—they bind to both T cells and tumor cells, forming a link between them. That connection sparks the T cells to commence their cancer-killing work.
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One problem with bispecific T cell engagers is that they can bring their cell-killing activity to healthy tissue. Maverick aims to reduce that risk via its proprietary “Cobra” technology, short for conditional bispecific redirected activation. This platform engineers bispecific T cell engagers so that they activate only at the tumor, sparing healthy tissue from the drug’s toxic effects. Another advantage of the company’s approach is that its drugs provide an “off-the-shelf” treatment option that does not require the cumbersome and lengthy process of making a therapy from a patient’s own immune cells.
Lead Maverick cancer drug candidate MVC-101 (to be renamed TAK-186) is designed to treat solid tumors that express epidermal growth factor (EGFR), a cancer protein. This protein is found on tumors for colorectal, head and neck, renal, pancreatic, cervical, and non-small cell lung cancers. According to the company, preclinical testing showed antitumor activity and tumor shrinkage across multiple types of tumors that express EGFR. Last month, Maverick began a Phase 1/2 clinical trial for that drug candidate.
Another compound, MVC-280 (TAK-280), is expected to begin clinical testing in the second half of Takeda’s 2021 fiscal year, which starts on April 1. That drug will be tested in patients whose solid tumors express a protein called B7H3. The Maverick drug pipeline includes three additional preclinical compounds in development for addressing solid tumors.
Other T-cell engager developers include Harpoon Therapeutics and Amunix, both based in South San Francisco. Last week, Amunix closed a $117 million Series B round of funding to support its march to the clinic with a T cell engager targeting solid tumors that express the cancer protein HER2. Maverick traces its origins to Harpoon, which spun out the startup in 2016. Harpoon is developing a T cell engager with three binding domains.
Harpoon and Maverick were both backed by venture capital firm MPM Capital. Takeda joined MPM in Maverick’s 2017 $23 million Series B round of funding via an investment from Millennium Pharmaceuticals, the Japanese company’s Cambridge, Massachusetts-based oncology unit. Shortly after the 2017 deal was announced, Takeda executive Perrin Wilson told MedCity News that the company’s cancer strategy included moves toward targeted therapeutics.
“Historically, Takeda was very focused on small molecules,” she said. “And you can see through these deals we’ve also been moving into different areas; biologics, whether it be through [antibody drug conjugates], antibodies or like Maverick, where it’s really T cell engagement.”
Takeda said it will keep Maverick’s team, which will join the pharma giant’s R&D organization. The companies expect to finalize the deal in the first quarter of Takeda’s 2021 fiscal year.
The Maverick acquisition is Takeda’s second big transaction announced in the past week. On March 3, the company said it would pay $196 million up front to acquire the rights to a Phase 3-ready Ovid Therapeutics drug tested against several rare forms of epilepsy.
Photo: Scott Eisen/Bloomberg, via Getty Images
