Takeda to buy Envoy Therapeutics
pharmafile | November 7, 2012 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | CNS, Envoy, Parkinson's, Parkinsons, Takeda
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company has bought another private US firm, its second in as many months.
The Japanese group is paying a total of $140 million for Envoy Therapeutics in a deal which gives it access to the Florida-based company’s proprietary bacTRAP technology.
This combines genetic engineering and molecular biology techniques for labelling and extracting the protein-making parts of specific types of cells.
The technology is useful in brain tissues where many cell types overlap, although Envoy insists bacTRAP is applicable to therapy areas outside the central nervous system (CNS) too.
Takeda will also gain Envoy’s pre-clinical CNS assets which cover Parkinson’s disease and cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia (CIAS) among others.
The Osaka-based group’s investment comprises an upfront sum as well as possible pre-clinical milestone payments and the deal is expected to be concluded in the next few days.
Envoy will operate out of Jupiter, Florida until next March, when the majority of scientific staff and the management team will be relocated to San Diego, California as part of Takeda Pharmaceuticals Research Division.
Its general manager Paul Chapman said: “Envoy’s scientific excellence in combination with their vision for the utilisation of bacTRAP technology have great potential to create and explore truly innovative targets across multiple therapeutic areas.”
Takeda is having a lively autumn on the acquisition trail: in October it bought private US biopharma firm LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals for an upfront payment of $60 million.
The prizes there for Takeda are LigoCyte’s lead product, a Phase I/II vaccine to prevent norovirus gastroenteritis, and its proprietary virus-like particle platform (VLP) technology.
Both deals were done by US subsidiary Takeda America Holdings, although Takeda and Envoy have been linked since October 2009 when venture capital arm Takeda Ventures helped the smaller firm with funding.
Takeda’s global ambitions are clear: as well as moving into new technologies in developed markets such as the US, it has also been cementing a place in emerging economies.
Last month it opened its new €75 million manufacturing facility in Yaroslavl, Russia – a move which complements last year’s $13.6 billion acquisition of Swiss speciality pharma firm Nycomed, a big player in the country.
Adam Hill
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