Astellas Pharma, a Japan-based pharmaceuticals company, has agreed to transfer development of a drug to its corporate venturing unit’s portfolio company, Drais Pharmaceuticals.
Astellas will transfer ownership of ASP3291, a potential treatment of ulcerative colitis in phase IIa study, from its pipeline to Telsar Pharma, a virtual company that will be operated by the Drais executive team.
Astellas Venture Management and venture capital firms InterWest Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures, which are the lead investors in Drais, will invest $14m into Telsar. Astellas also has the right of first exclusive negotiation for future partnering activities related to the compound and the right of first refusal for the Japanese market. The company also has the right of non-exclusive negotiation for other markets.
Drais and Astellas will also seek further opportunities to put Astellas compounds into this partnership.
Yoshihiko Hatanaka, executive president of Astellas, said: "The unique structure of this partnership is reflective of Astellas’ new ‘Multi-Track R&D’ approach.
"This new strategy enables us to move our promising compounds forward without any disruption in the development process. Additionally, this new approach allows us to optimize costs and control risks while accessing outside capital and expertise."
Donna Tempel, co-founder and executive president of Drais, added: "We are also grateful to our long-time investors, InterWest Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures, for supporting the effort it took to get this collaboration off the ground."
Tempel and fellow Drais co-founder, Robert Desjardins, were previously the senior management of Yamanouchi R&D, a precursor company to Astellas, before acting as the executive team of AkaRx, acquired by Eisai/MGI for $300m in 2010 after corporate venturing backing from Astellas. The exit value had been previously reported to be $255m and AkaRx was founded in 2005 as a spin out of the merger of Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Company and Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Company to form Astellas Pharma.
Formed in September 2007, Drais completed its series A round in January 2008 from lead investors, InterWest Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures.