"text-align: center;">AstraZeneca Inks $400 Million Deal With Takeda, To Co-Develop Parkinson’s Drug
AstraZeneca, through a parkinson’s drug deal with takeda, could receive upto $400 million from the latter. The deal involves handing over the rights of AZ’s promising treatment for Parkinson’s disease, as the FTSE 100 giant presses ahead with offloading non-core drug assets to raise funds for its priority drugs pipeline in areas including cancer.
The deal is the latest example of AstraZeneca partnering with other drugmakers to develop medicines as it seeks to focus resources on priority areas such as cancer and respiratory disease.
The drug, MEDI1341, is an antibody treatment discovered by the British company that is due to enter Phase I clinical trials later this year. The British firm has agreed a commercial tie-up with Japanese drugs company Takeda, under which the two companies will jointly develop the antibody therapy MEDI1341 for degenerative neurological conditions including Parkinson’s.
“By combining our scientific expertise and sharing the risks and cost of development, we hope to accelerate the advancement of MEDI1341 as a promising new approach to support the treatment of people with Parkinson’s disease around the world,” said AstraZeneca executive vice president Mene Pangalos.
AstraZeneca, led by chief executive Pascal Soriot, has been prioritising areas including finding cures for cancer and respiratory and heart diseases, whereas Takeda is a neuroscience specialist.
Under the terms of the deal, Takeda will pay AstraZeneca up to $400m and thereafter the firms will equally share future development and commercialisation costs, as well as any future revenues. AZ will work on phase one development of MEDI1341, while Takeda will lead on future clinical development.
Evidence that the aggregation of alpha-synuclein drives Parkinson’s progression has made it a target for drug developers, some of which are well ahead of AstraZeneca and Takeda. Prothena moved its Roche-partnered anti-alpha-synuclein antibody into phase 2 last month.
However, AstraZeneca thinks the high affinity and selectivity of MEDI1341—plus its reduced interaction with the immune system—will make it a safer, more effective drug than competing candidates.
AstraZeneca has opted against testing that hypothesis unpartnered, though. The deal is further evidence of the Anglo-Swedish company’s desire to split the risks and rewards of developing drugs in high-stakes CNS indications.
Emiliangelo Ratti, Head, Global CNS Therapeutic Area Unit, Takeda, said: “Despite modest advancements in maintenance therapies, Parkinson’s disease continues to represent a devastating diagnosis and a burdensome challenge for therapeutic discovery. Our collaboration with AstraZeneca is a sophisticated one that will enable us to efficiently advance a validated target in a new modality, with the aim of improving the lives of patients.”
