Fate tempts Takeda's interest in stem cell technology
This article was originally published in Scrip
Takeda has invested in the private US stem cell company Fate Therapeutics as part of a broader effort to get closer to novel drug discovery and regenerative medicine technology.
The Japanese firm would not disclose the actual investment or equity stake, which was acquired through its California-based venture capital arm Takeda Ventures. Although it has a flexible approach, Takeda has a general policy of taking a minority interest behind lead investors.
Fate is working to elucidate adult stem cell signalling pathways such as Wnt, Hedgehog and Notch to identify potential therapeutic targets, with the aim of developing small molecule and biologic stem cell activators and modulators. It is also developing regenerative therapies based on proprietary induced pluripotent stem cell technology, for which it has a basic research alliance with Becton Dickinson.
The San Diego-based venture, set up in 2007, raised $30 million in a Series B financing in late 2009 and has attracted a broad portfolio of investors including Astellas, Genzyme, Venrock and Arch Venture Partners.
Takeda may have been encouraged to join the list by the positive preliminary data released by Fate earlier this year from a Phase I clinical trial with its lead candidate, FT1050 (16,16-dimethyl prostaglandin E2), which is used in the ex-vivo conditioning of umbilical cord blood-derived haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs).
Early data from the study suggested that FT1050 improves HSC engraftment in the bone marrow of patients with haematologic malignancies such as leukaemia and lymphoma who have undergone non-myeloablative conditioning therapy. HSC support is administered to such patients to aid the recovery of blood cell production affected by radio and chemotherapy and to reduce infections and graft-versus-host disease.
The molecule has orphan status in the US for the treatment of allogeneic HSCs used in patients with neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, lymphopenia and anaemia and has received a positive EU recommendation for orphan status.
Takeda Ventures (set up in 2001 as Takeda Research Investment) is looking to place up to $100 million in total in a range of ventures and technology, with a focus on nucleic acid therapeutics, regenerative medicine and vaccine/antibody technology.
Existing portfolio firms include Symphogen, Lectus Therapeutics and Heptares Therapeutics, and past investments in others such as CellCentric and Envoy Therapeutics helped pave the way to subsequent joint research collaborations.