Gene therapies are among the most expensive in pharma — and are now behind some of the most high-dollar deals.
This month, Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceuticals dove deep into the gene therapy space with two multibillion deals aimed at developing a range of therapies. First, the company announced that it has struck a deal worth up to $1.1 billion with Selecta Biosciences. The pair will team up to develop next-gen gene therapies for two indications for patients with lysosomal storage disorders.
Now, this week, Takeda and Poseida Therapeutics announced a new pact to first focus on six in vivo gene therapy programs — with the option to add another two.
As part of the deal, Takeda will leverage Poseida’s proprietary Cas-CLOVER, DNA and RNA nanoparticle delivery technology along with other platform technologies to develop therapies for several indications, including Poseida’s Hemophilia A program.
The new deal comes with a $45 million up front payment for Poseida and is then chock full of milestone payments that all told, could eventually be worth up to $3.6 billion.
“This partnership reinforces Takeda's commitment to investing in next-generation gene therapy approaches that have the potential to deliver functional cures to patients with rare genetic and hematologic diseases,” Takeda Rare Diseases Drug Discovery Unit Head, Madhu Natarajan, said in a statement.
