Takeda Pharmaceutical has ambitions to grow its prospects in gene therapy, and one of the ways it’s doing that is through alliances with biotech companies that have tools and technologies that can contribute to its programs. Takeda already has an alliance with protein design startup Evozyne. The Japanese pharma giant is building on that pact with a new agreement that could cover gene therapies for up to four rare disease targets.
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The disease targets remain undisclosed. But under the terms of the deal announced Tuesday, Evozyne will create novel protein sequences that can be advanced as gene therapies. Chicago-based Evozyne says it engineers proteins by mimicking millions of years of natural evolution. The company accomplishes this in the lab with artificial intelligence and machine-learning techniques that analyze the proteins produced by nature. With that knowledge, Evozyne designs novel proteins to address new disease challenges. The company describes its approach as rational design based on nature’s rules. The company calls its next-generation proteins “natural machines.”
Takeda and Evozyne first teamed up at the beginning of last year. That agreement called for the startup to develop proteins that could be used for gene therapies addressing inherited metabolic disorders. Financial terms were not disclosed, though the companies said that Evozyne received upfront and research payments, and is eligible for milestone payments. The deal gives Takeda the option to license the Evozyne protein sequences for its gene therapy programs.
Evozyne said on its website that it delivered its first result to Takeda within six months and designed a library of novel proteins with improved functionality. The company added that it is developing functional miniaturized genes that may overcome constraints of the engineered viruses currently used in gene therapy. These viral vectors have limited capacity for genetic payloads.
The partners are disclosing a bit more financial detail in the new agreement unveiled Tuesday. Like the first deal, the new one gives Takeda an option to license Evozyne proteins for development and potential commercialization. Evozyne gets upfront and research funding; the amounts were not specified, other than to say that the sum is in the double-digit millions of dollars. Development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments could bring Evozyne up to $400 million.
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Takeda’s gene therapy current gene prospects stem from dealmaking. A partnership with Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based AskBio had advanced a gene therapy for hemophilia to clinical testing, though Takeda suspended the studies in both hemophilia A and B in 2020. An alliance with Ambys Medicines is focused on developing cell and gene therapies for liver diseases. Takeda also has a research alliance with Evotec, and last October the pharma giant struck up a partnership with Poseida Therapeutics, a biotech company developing in vivo gene therapies that are delivered with non-viral technologies. [Paragraph updated to reflect the status of the hemophilia programs.]
“Producing highly differentiated transgenes is critical to advancing the next generation of gene therapies,” Madhu Natarajan, head of the rare diseases drug discovery unit at Takeda said in a prepared statement. “By expanding our collaboration with Evozyne, we have the opportunity to leverage their novel protein engineering platform across new disease targets with the hope of one day delivering functional cures to patients living with rare genetic diseases.”
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