AsianScientist (Sep. 8, 2017) – Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and Noile-Immune Biotech Inc. have entered into a collaboration to develop next generation chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR-T).
Noile-Immune has exclusive licence for a next generation CAR-T cell therapy developed by Professor Koji Tamada at Yamaguchi University. The CAR-T therapy produces cytokines, chemokines and other molecules, and is expected to potentially influence or alter the tumor microenvironment of solid tumor tissues. The two companies intend to use this technology to discover and develop new CAR-T immunotherapies, with the aim of treating a broad range of cancers.
In addition to providing resources required for implementation, Takeda will make a technology access payment to Noile-Immune Biotech as well as an equity investment. Takeda will have exclusive options to obtain licensing rights for the development and commercialization of Noile-Immune’s pipeline and products resulting from this partnership on pre-agreed terms.
“This technology forms the basis for developing potentially transformational treatments for solid tumors,” said Dr. Hidenobu Ishizaki, President of Noile-Immune. “We believe our collaboration with Takeda is a significant step towards rapidly delivering therapies that use this technology to cancer patients.”
“We recognize the enormous potential of next-generation CAR-T cell therapy technology to deliver transformative medicines in oncology, one of our core therapeutic areas,” said Mr. Chris Arendt, Head of the Oncology Drug Discovery Unit, Takeda.
“We are especially excited that our collaboration with the outstanding team at Noile-Immune will be located at our cutting-edge Shonan Research Center in Japan, allowing our Takeda scientists to work side-by-side with the Noile-Immune team to accelerate the advancement of innovative cellular immunotherapies to the clinic.”
Takeda signed the agreement with Noile-Immune through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
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Source: Takeda; Photo: Shutterstock.
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