The companies will harness BridGene’s IMTAC (Isobaric Mass Tagged Affinity Characterization) Chemoproteomics platform to identify targets and small molecule drug candidates.
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Takeda Pharmaceutical forged a drug discovery and development partnership with BridGene Biosciences to discover small molecule drugs for “undruggable” neurodegenerative disease targets. The companies will harness BridGene’s IMTAC (Isobaric Mass Tagged Affinity Characterization) Chemoproteomics platform to identify targets and small molecule drug candidates.
Under terms of the deal, the companies will establish five different drug discovery programs. Takeda will then develop those candidates into therapeutic candidates and drive them into clinical development. BridGene with its chemoproteomics platform can identify small molecule interactions with a wide variety of proteins in living cells.
BridGene will receive an undisclosed upfront payment for access to its IMTAC technology. For each validated target, Takeda will receive an exclusive license to research, develop and commercialize the candidates. BridGene will be eligible to receive potential preclinical, clinical and commercial milestone payments that could exceed $500 million, as well as royalties from future sales of commercialized drugs resulting from the collaboration.
Ceri Davis, head of the Neuroscience Drug Discovery Unit at Takeda, said access to BridGene’s novel chemoproteomics platform will help the company rapidly identify novel targets and novel drug candidates that have the potential to target underlying mechanisms of debilitating neurological disorders.
“Partnerships such as this are central to our R&D strategy of pursuing precision medicine approaches to neuroscience disease,” Davis said in a statement.
The collaboration expands on an established pilot project between BridGene and Takeda that was completed in 2020. This new partnership includes an initial research program focused on identifying targets that contribute to a disease phenotype that is believed to underly neurodegenerative disease and is modifiable by small molecules in a phenotypic screen. Takeda has the right to initiate up to four additional research programs as part of the collaboration.
Ping Cao, co-founder and chief executive officer of BridGene, said the collaboration with Takeda is an important milestone for the company. He said this partnership is the first of what the company believes will be multiple discovery and development partnerships built around the company’s chemoproteomics technology.
“Our approach to drug discovery and development has two primary components, use of covalent small molecules to bind to undruggable targets and chemoproteomics to look at small molecule interactions with the proteins in live cells. These two can be combined to determine the targets that drive characteristics (phenotypes) of disease onset and progression and to identify the targets that a small molecule drug candidate interacts within live cells. With these tools we can move very quickly from hit to lead in drug discovery, Cao said in a statement.
