A "redemption" and a $1.38 billion transaction of "slimming" Takeda...

Text | Su Tang

Takeda Pharmaceutical has been trading continuously recently.

At the end of February, Takeda announced an agreement with the Japanese pharmaceutical company Teijin Pharmaceutical to sell four non-core type 2 diabetes products sold in Japan to Teijin Pharmaceutical at a price of US$1.

It seems that Takeda wants to "sell, sell, sell" to the end.

However, the two transactions since March show from the other side that "selling one's body to pay off debts" is not Takeda's sole purpose.

The first transaction came from Takeda and Ovid Therapeutics, a rare neurological disease biopharmaceutical company.

On March 4, Takeda announced that it had signed an exclusive agreement with Ovid.

What's interesting is that this seemingly simple drug acquisition is actually Takeda "redeemed" its own drugs.

Soticlestat is a cholesterol 24 hydroxylase (CH24H) inhibitor, originally discovered by Takeda's research center in Shonan, Japan.

In January 2017, Takeda announced that it had signed an agreement with Ovid to develop cooperation on the development of rare epilepsy drugs for children.

This was not necessarily a good deal at the time.

In 2021, both the strength and the strategy of Takeda will not be what they used to be.

Moreover, Sotilestat, which is used to treat developmental and epileptic encephalopathy including Dravet syndrome (DS) and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), faces a blue ocean.

DS and LGS usually manifest in infancy or early childhood and cause severe cognitive and developmental disabilities related to epilepsy, but most anti-epileptic drugs are ineffective.

In 2018, the FDA first approved GW Pharmaceuticals' Epidiolex (cannabidiol) oral solution for DS and LGS patients aged 2 years and older.

Drugs capable of fighting Epidiolex did not appear until last year.

On February 2, 2020, Takeda announced that its Sotilestat and another innovative drug under development, Maribavir, were approved by the Drug Evaluation Center of the National Medical Products Administration and formally identified as "breakthrough therapeutic drugs.

Soticlesstatis is very likely to become the latest competitor.

Another transaction occurred five days later.

On March 9, Takeda announced the exercise of the option to acquire biotechnology company Maverick Therapeutics for a total price of US$525 million.

The deal also dates back to 2017.
In January 2017, Takeda announced an agreement with Maverick, which was only a year old at the time, to cooperate on T-cell binding agent (TCE) immunotherapy.

Takeda is looking at COBRA, Maverick's T cell cement technology platform.
Phil Rowlands, then head of Takeda Oncology Therapy, said, “The collaboration with Maverick is crucial to Takeda’s ambitions in the cancer field.
We see the potential of Maverick in developing personalized T cell articulation technology, and its breakthrough biotechnology The platform will help Takeda achieve its goal of developing innovative targeted therapies to treat cancer patients.
"

Even so, as in the case of Soticlestat, Takeda did not have the determination and strength to bet heavily on TCE at the time.
Takeda eventually invested US$125 million to provide R&D funds for Maverick, in exchange for option equity and exclusive rights to acquire Maverick five years later.

In December 2020, Merck announced that it has established a strategic partnership with biotechnology company Janux Therapeutics to develop next-generation T cell cement immunotherapies, and signed a license agreement of up to $1 billion.

I don't know if it has been affected by Merck to some extent, Takeda also seems to suddenly remember the agreement with Maverick.
Through the acquisition in March, Takeda will not only fully include Maverick's two drug candidates and COBRA, a unique T cell cement technology platform, but also incorporate Maverick's entire R&D team into the Takeda R&D organization.

"Takeda's pursuit of cutting-edge cancer therapies is crucial to our R&D strategy," said Christopher Arendt, head of the oncology treatment field.
For Takeda, the acquisition of Maverick is tantamount to broadening the pipeline portfolio of oncology products and focusing its business on the core.

The two transactions clearly demonstrated that although the "sell, sell, and sell" voices are quite loud, it is the "main theme" of Takeda's transformation to adjust the asset portfolio while focusing on the core business.
Takeda Global President and CEO Christophe Weber (Christophe Weber) has long set Takeda's tune to focus on core business, which he regards as the top priority of Takeda's globalization strategy.
"In this industry, globalization is not a choice, but an inevitable.
" He explained in a speech at the Nikkei BP 50th Anniversary Forum.

On the other hand, Takeda’s sales journey will not stop with a high probability, even if it has already exceeded its original goal of divesting $10 billion in non-core assets.
After the acquisition of Teijin Pharmaceutical, a Takeda spokesperson stated via email that US$10 billion was only a "target" and not a "cap".

"Takeda will continue to use potential opportunities to further focus on the five core business areas of oncology, rare diseases, neuroscience, digestion and blood products.
" She said in an email.