Takeda and Degron Therapeutics have entered into a collaboration and exclusive licence agreement aimed at developing molecular glue degraders for targets in oncology, neuroscience and inflammation, with the deal worth over $1.2bn.
The partnership will see the companies use Degron’s GlueXplorer platform to identify, validate and optimise molecular glue degraders for therapeutic targets selected by Takeda, which will be responsible for further development and commercialisation after a certain stage of advancement is reached.
In exchange, Degron will receive an undisclosed upfront payment and equity investment from Takeda and will be eligible to receive future milestone payments of up to $1.2bn, as well as tiered royalties. The companies will also have the option to expand the collaboration to include more targets.
Molecular glue degraders are a new class of drugs that can be directed at targets that have previously been considered ‘undruggable’ by other approaches.
Degron’s proprietary GlueXplorer platform encompasses a library of structurally differentiated molecular glue degraders, complementary screening approaches and extensive assays to validate the molecular glue mechanism for degraders discovered by the platform.
Degron’s chief executive officer and co-founder, Lily Zou, said GlueXplorer has been validated by its “robust, first-in-class pipeline of novel molecular glue drugs for disease targets that are undruggable by other modalities or better addressed with this new modality”.
Zou added: “By partnering with Takeda, we combine our molecular glue discovery expertise with Takeda’s vast drug development and commercialisation experience in hopes of offering patients worldwide a new class of treatments.”
Chris Arendt, chief scientific officer, head of research at Takeda, also commented: “This collaboration with Degron not only adds an innovative new platform to our drug discovery toolbox, it is also an example of cutting-edge innovation emerging in the exciting China biotech sector.”
The partnership comes just one month after Takeda entered into a collaboration agreement with Kumquat Biosciences worth over $1.2bn to advance an oral immune-oncology drug candidate. The deal gave Takeda an exclusive global licence to develop and commercialise the selected small molecule inhibitor as a monotherapy, combination therapy or both.
Takeda and Protagonist Therapeutics also recently announced a worldwide licence and collaboration agreement worth over $300m to develop and commercialise an investigational injectable hepcidin mimetic peptide of the natural hormone hepcidin to treat the rare blood disorder polycythaemia vera.