Genevant signs $600m liver fibrosis deal with Takeda

Genevant Sciences has entered into a licence agreement for Takeda to develop and market a new liver fibrosis treatment.

The agreement means the Vancouver-based pharmaceutical company could receive up to $600 million in upfront and milestone payments on top of royalties for product sales.

The lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivered nucleic targets previously inaccessible hepatic cells, making new treatments for liver fibrosis possible.

Takeda now has exclusive rights to the LNP technology for a specified number of hepatic stellate cells targets

Pete Lutwyche, president and chief executive officer of Genevant Sciences said: “It is well established that activated hepatic stellate cells are implicated in the progression of fibrotic liver disease, but unfortunately access to these cells has been elusive.

“As longstanding leaders in nucleic acid delivery, Genevant has developed a novel hepatic stellate cell-directed LNP platform to meet this challenge and we are delighted to partner with Takeda to utilise this innovation to develop new treatments for patients suffering from liver fibrosis.”

Takeda has announced several deals this year already, including the acquisition of global rights from Ovid Therapeutics to develop and commercialise Soticlestat and its acquisition of Maverick Therapeutics.

Bernard Allan, head of liver disease research at Takeda said: “Late-stage liver disease remains an area where new treatment options are desperately needed, so we are committed to exploring new and innovative approaches.

“The ability to target hepatic stellate cells with novel payloads leveraging Genevant’s lipid nanoparticle technology is an exciting opportunity to discover and develop first-in-class therapies that we anticipate will halt or reverse the progression of liver fibrosis.”

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