Takeda has pulled back from a research collaboration with a fellow Japanese life sciences company, ending work to discover new small molecules that target mRNA.
The partnership with Veritas In Silico (VIS) originally kicked off in 2023, with Takeda offering an undisclosed upfront and research payment as well as the promise of potential milestone fees and royalties on resulting product sales. But the deal has been called off “amicably,” a Takeda spokesperson confirmed to Fierce Biotech yesterday.
“While we would refrain from commenting on the details of individual research activities, we believe that the approximately three years of joint drug discovery research to date have provided us concrete learnings,” the spokesperson added.
The deal centered on VIS’ drug discovery platform ibVIS, which analyzes mRNA sequences to find areas that can be targeted by antisense oligonucleotides or small interfering RNAs.
At the time the deal was struck, VIS said the goal was to develop medicines for genetically-defined diseases where “promising treatments are long-awaited,” VIS founder and CEO Shingo Nakamura, Ph.D., said in a release.
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Though the companies are no longer partnered, Takeda and VIS will stay in touch to discuss potential future applications of the results they generated over the past three years, according to an April 13 release (PDF) from VIS. VIS also does not expect the terminated deal to have a material impact on its business performance, the company said.
The decision to cancel the VIS pact was made based on Takeda’s “standard criteria” for evaluating partnerships, the Takeda spokesperson told Fierce, and does not reflect a broader shift in the pharma’s R&D strategy.
That said, the Japanese drugmaker has been actively reshaping its operations recently. Takeda tore up a neuro partnership with Denali Therapeutics earlier this month, and has also launched a $1.3 billion restructuring that will result in 634 laid off U.S. employees.
These moves followed earlier decisions by the company to shrink its footprint in the biotech hub of Boston and walk away entirely from cell therapy.
