Eisai To Shut Down H3 In Global R&D Restructuring
New Structure From October; New Astellas W Coast Campus
Executive Summary
Eisai has decided to shut down its US oncology research operation H3 by September in the course of restructuring its global R&D organization. The majority of H3 employees will be laid off as Eisai Inc. and new organization DHBL absorb its functions and assets. Meanwhile another Japanese pharma firm, Astellas, builds up its US R&D footprint.
Eisai Co., Ltd. has decided to shut down its US research subsidiary H3 Biomedicine Inc in September as part of a wider restructuring of its global R&D organization.
According to an official notice of layoffs published by the state of Massachusetts, where H3 is located, 79 employees will be laid off in connection with the decision. The Japanese firm's Nutley, NJ-based US headquarters, Eisai Inc., will absorb H3’s R&D remaining functions and assets by the end of 2022.
As part of the global R&D realignment, Eisai said it would move to a new organization under the concept of "Deep Human Biology Learning" (DHBL), which aims to focus on the main pillars of collaboration and incubation and academia/industry alliance.
The firm confirmed to Scrip that some parts of H3’s functions would be transferred to DHBL, which it noted would officially start full operations from 1 October.
Pursuing Cost-Effective Productivity
According to an Eisai spokesperson, the firm decided to close H3 in the course of building the DHBL organization “as the result of considering more productive and cost-effective asset allocation.”
The Eisai subsidiary was founded in 2010 in Cambridge, MA with a specialized focus on the oncology area and has progressed several clinical-stage assets in the Phase I or II stage. These include H3B-6545, a small molecule selective estrogen receptor covalent antagonist for luminal breast cancer; H3B-6527, a fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 inhibitor for hepatocellular carcinoma; and E7766, an agonist for stimulator of interferon genes for advanced solid tumors or lymphomas.
“H3 accomplished many missions in 10 years since its foundation in 2011. Considering its next 10 years, we decided to terminate its business,” Eisai told Scrip. The majority of H3’s employees will leave Eisai and the company provide assistance in moving to other internal roles or finding new jobs.
H3's main R&D functions and assets, including its drug discovery platform, will be absorbed into Eisai Inc. and Eisai confirmed to Scrip that H3’s collaborative R&D project with Bristol Myers Squibb Company, which has been running since 2018, will continue within the Eisai group. The project is evaluating novel immuno-oncology therapeutics using H3's RNA splicing platform.
Eisai’s spokesperson noted that the firm doesn’t have any plans to close any other subsidiaries as of the moment.
DHBL's Mission
DHBL will have five domain areas based around neurology and oncology, Eisai's current strategic focus areas of strength: protein integrity and homeostasis; microenvironment dynamics; cell lineage and differentiation; InflammAging and senescence; and pathogen and body defense. The last PBD domain will focus on drug discovery looking at counteractions between pathogens such as bacteria, fungi and protozoan viruses.
Five functions will support the five domains at each development stage: human biology integration; discovery concept validation; discovery evidence generation; physiological product design; and clinical evidence generation.
The over-arching aim is that “diseases will be viewed as a disease continuum, and comprehensive analysis of genomic information, pathophysiological information and clinical information associated with the root cause of the disease is the first step in redefining the disease concept” and decision-making speeded up, Eisai said.
The hope is that neurodegenerative disorders and cancer may be turned into curable diseases by enabling data-driven drug discovery starting from reverse translational human biology based on clinical data, it explained.
Alzheimer's Focus
As part of the broad restructuring, Eisai will break up its old R&D organization composed of neurology and oncology business groups, a medicine development center, and the hhc (human health care) data creation center.
Associated personnel changes include the appointment of Lynn Kramer as chief clinical officer for Alzheimer's disease and brain health (currently chief clinical officer in the Neurology Business Group).
This group will focus on R&D and regulatory tasks, marketing and alliance management for dementia and Alzheimer’s and include Eisai's “most important project” lecanemab, as well as other disease-modifying treatments. (Also see "Eisai/Biogen’s Lecanemab Faces Smoother Passage Through US FDA Than Aducanumb" - Pink Sheet, 7 Jul, 2022.) (Also see "Eisai/Biogen Maintain Lead Over Lilly In New Race To Alzheimer’s Approval" - Scrip, 5 Jul, 2022.)
Takeshi Hamano, formerly vice-president and Scientific Operations lead at H3, has also been named as a portfolio and project management group lead at DHBL.
Astellas in $70m US R&D Expansion
In contrast to Eisai's H3 decision, another major Japanese pharma firm, Astellas Pharma, Inc., has announced the construction of a new US R&D campus in South San Francisco, to be completed and operational in summer 2023.
The company already has the Astellas Biomedical Innovation Hub in the greater Boston area and states the new integrated center will bring together teams and functions, including in cell and gene therapies, currently located at different sites in the Bay Area such as Astellas Gene Therapies and Xyphos Biosciences, Inc.
The new 154,000 square-foot center, with an investment of $70m, “allows for more efficient use of space by combining the lab and office facilities into one new building, compared to current independent locations,” and allows for future growth, Astellas stated.
The recent R&D developments at the two Japanese firms provide an interesting contrast - Eisai has set its focus on oncology and neuroscience, building up several internal subsidiaries, while Astellas has expanded its gene therapy portfolio with a string of acquisitions including Xyphos and Universal Cells Inc. to grow its pipeline.
Eisai's recent acquisition strategy seems more geared towards enhancing its digital health platform, such as through the deal earlier this year for Arteryex. (Also see "Arteryex Acquisition To Enhance Eisai's Digital Strategy" - Scrip, 14 Apr, 2022.)
With H3 shutting down, the company will have three major US R&D sites - Eisai Inc,, the Eisai Center for Genetics Guided Dementia Discovery in Cambridge, MA and the Exton, PA site for Epochal Precision Anti-Cancer Therapeutics - all of which are located in the East Coast area, while Astellas highlighted the fact it was now extending its R&D presence to the West Coast.