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news.BioWa, a subsidiary of Japanese pharmaceutcal company Kyowa Hakko Kogyo, has agreed to provide Takeda with access to BioWa's patented Potelligent technology platform.
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The agreement grants Takeda non-exclusive rights to research, develop, manufacture and commercialize antibodies based on the technology for an undisclosed number of targets. In return, BioWa will receive upfront license fees, development milestone payments and also royalties on products developed by Takeda once they are successfully marketed. Financial details were not disclosed.
“We believe that the collaboration with BioWa will accelerate our drug discovery and development activities in therapeutic antibodies, a field that is expected to be potential as an important source of new medicines to satisfy unmet medical needs,” said Shigenori Ohkawa, general manager of pharmaceutical research division of Takeda.
Potelligent technology improves potency and efficacy of antibody therapeutics, by enhancing antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), one of the major mechanism of antibody therapeutics. It involves the reduction of the amount of fucose in the carbohydrate structure of an antibody using a proprietary fucosyltransferase-knockout CHO cell line as a production cell. BioWa says the research shows that the technology significantly enhances ADCC activity of an antibody in vitro, thereby increasing the potential for improved activity in vivo.