The pharmaceutical giant Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (NYSE: TAK) is back with a new acquisition. The company has announced the acquisition of Maverick Therapeutics, Inc for a pre-negotiated upfront payment as well as potential development and regulatory milestones totaling up to $525 million. This acquisition follows a multi-year collaboration between Takeda and Maverick, signed in 2017.
Maverick Therapeutics is a privately held biopharmaceutical company pioneering conditionally active bispecific T-cell targeted immunotherapies. Its lead candidates are MVC-280 (now TAK-280) and MVC-101 (now TAK-186). TAK-186 is currently in a Phase 1/2 study for the treatment of EFGR-expressing solid tumors and TAK-280 is expected to enter the clinic in the second half of Takeda’s fiscal 2021 for the treatment of patients with B7H3-expressing solid tumors.
The candidates are part of Maverick’s T-cell engager COBRA platform, which is designed to target a broad range of solid tumors with highly specific and potent activity while limiting toxicities in normal tissues. The COBRA platform complements Takeda’s approach to redirecting immune cells to target cancer with the potential to unlock efficacy in solid tumors.
The deal is expected to be finalized in Q1 of Takeda’s fiscal year 2021.
Takeda is taking a leap into a competitive oncology market, as many of its competitors have. Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK) and Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) have been bolstering their pipelines through some major acquisitions. Gilead acquired Immunomedics (NASDAQ: IMMU) for $21 billion in September and Merck bought OncoImmune for $425 million in cash upfront, according to search results in our Healthcare Deal Database.
