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news.Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical and Takeda Pharmaceutical have partnered to develop and commercialize therapies for rare genetic diseases.
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Under the partnership, Ultragenyx will receive an exclusive license to one preclinical Takeda candidate in an unspecified predetermined area of use.
Ultragenyx will retain an exclusive option to co-develop and co-commercialize the product candidate in further therapeutic areas.
Additionally, the companies have established a five-year research collaboration that will give Ultragenyx the option to license up to five additional Takeda product candidates for rare diseases.
It is subject to undertaking initial validation activities under a joint research committee.
Takeda will have the exclusive option to commercialize any licensed products developed via the collaboration in Asia. It will also have an option to exclusively license one Ultragenyx pipeline products in Japan.
Takeda agreed to invest about $65m in Ultragenyx in two tranches. The first will include a $25m stock purchase along with a $15m cash premium at closing.
It will be followed at Ultragenyx’s option, within one year, by a second equity purchase of $25m with no additional premium.
Takeda has agreed to a potential third equity investment, tied to Ultragenyx achieving an unspecified development milestone on a second asset.
Takeda chief medical and scientific officer Andrew Plump said: "This partnership provides Takeda access to Ultragenyx’s strong patient-centric development and regulatory capabilities in the rare disease space, and could create significant value for both companies by delivering important new therapies to patients."
In a separate development, Takeda has entered into a global license, development and commercialization agreement with Theravance Biopharma for TD-8954, a selective 5-HT4 receptor agonist being investigated for potential use in the treatment of gastrointestinal motility disorders, including enteral feeding intolerance.
Takeda will make an upfront cash payment of $15m to Theravance.
Theravance will also be eligible to receive success based development and sales milestone payments as well as double digit royalties on global net sales.