Pharmaceutical firm Takeda acquired one of its portfolio companies, US-based celiac disease drug developer PvP Biologics, yesterday in a deal sized at up to $330m.
PvP was founded in 2011 out of a project submitted for University of Washington’s Genetically Engineered Machine contest that involved it using software designed by UW professor of biochemistry David Baker to find an enzyme able to break down gluten in the stomach before it damages the intestine.
The enzyme, KumaMax, was developed by a team headed by PvP’s co-founder and chief scientific officer Ingrid Swanson Pultz, also part of UW’s biochemistry department. It forms the basis of PvP’s lead drug candidate, TAK-062.
TAK-062 recently successfully passed through a phase 1 proof-of-mechanism study for celiac disease, an autoimmune condition where gluten consumed by a patient ends up harming their intestine.
Takeda supplied $35m in financing for PvP through a 2017 transaction that gave it the exclusive option to fully acquire the company once it had finished a specific drug development plan for KumaMax together with a data plan.
The overall size of the deal will be determined by whether PvP meets certain development and regulatory milestones. Takeda, which is already working in a celiac disease candidate known as TAK-101, plans to soon begin a phase 2b efficacy and dose-ranging trial for TAK-062.
Asit Parikh, head of Takeda’s Gastroenterology Therapeutic Area Unit, said: “PvP Biologics’ work demonstrated that TAK-062 is a highly targeted therapy that could change the standard of care in celiac disease.
“We are now applying our deep expertise in gastrointestinal diseases to advance the clinical study of TAK-062 and TAK-101, two programs with different modalities that have both demonstrated clinical proof of mechanism.”
