Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited Neuroscience Drug Discovery Unit is searching for assets in Lead Generation stage available for out-licensing or partnerships, which may enhance our pipeline. The initial step may be for Takeda to ask for asset sharing to perform profiling.
- Application due date: February 28, 2023
Area of interest
- Indications of interest
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
- Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD)
- Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
- Parkinson’s disease (PD)
- Multiple system atrophy (MSA)
- Down syndrome with Alzheimer’s disease
- Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA)
- Huntington’s disease (HD)
- Hereditary ataxias
- Spinal bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA)
- Muscular dystrophies (DM1, FSHD, DMD)
- Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT)
- Developmental and epileptic encephalopathies
- Any therapeutic modality may be used (e.g. small molecules, antibodies, nucleic acids, etc.) as long as it is rationally acceptable
- Asset should have human/patient-based therapeutic rationale addressing the current unmet needs of the potential target population and unique selling point versus competitor assets targeting same indication or mechanism
- Some specific mechanisms of interest are;
- Key autonomous and non-autonomous disease-relevant pathways including aberrant glial cells in neurodegenerative disorders
- Cellular senescence in neurodegenerative disorders
- Disease-relevant stress granules, liquid-liquid phase separation
- Novel therapeutic approaches related to autophagy and mitophagy
- Targets or therapeutic hypothesis established from patient-based findings for neurodegeneration (e.g. approaches addressing sleep/circadian rhythm, waste clearance, BBB integrity, anti-chronic inflammation, organelle homeostasis, DNA damage)
- Innovative therapeutic approaches for signature features of genetic neurological disorders including abnormal DNA/RNA structures, RNA splicing and protein production widely observed in rare/intractable neurological diseases, somatic instability
- Lead Generation stage assets should meet the following
- Screening or initial lead design is completed
- Key proof of mechanism/proof of concept data in relation to target or therapeutic hypothesis has been obtained using such lead candidates
- Assays for further asset selection and optimization is established
- No critical on-target safety/toxicity issues have been identified and current safety data supports further development of leads
- Patent strategy is available
Area of “No” interest
- Indications which are out of focus are: multiple sclerosis, acute ischemic stroke, traumatic brain injury, cerebral thrombosis, cerebral hemorrhage
- Mechanisms which are out of focus are: dopaminergic agents for Parkinson’s disease, palliative treatments for hereditary neurological diseases such as anti-convulsant for developmental and epileptic encephalopathies
- Application due date: February 28, 2023
About this RFP, please Click here.
Please note that Takeda Pharmaceutical Company will not be able to respond to direct inquiries.