Evozyne, LLC, a privately held molecular engineering technology company founded by life science innovator Paragon Biosciences, announced the signing of a strategic collaboration and license agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (“Takeda”). Under the agreement, Evozyne’s evolution-based protein design technology will be used to research and develop proteins that could be incorporated into next generation gene therapies for genetic disorders within the inborn errors of metabolism and lysosomal storage disease areas of research.
“People living with inborn errors of metabolism diseases have profound deficiencies in enzyme levels or lack of enzyme activity that lead to the build-up of toxic materials in the body,” said Rama Ranganathan, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder and chief scientific officer of Evozyne. “For years, researchers have been working to convert existing cells to express the missing enzyme. We now have the ability to create new enzymes that could enable more effective gene therapy approaches that may have a greater impact on patients with these disorders.”
Evozyne is using advanced computational and machine learning methods in its evolution-based, data-driven engineering process that can be used to create synthetic proteins with new precision and efficiency for multiple applications and industries. In partnership with Takeda, Evozyne will create novel protein sequences for advancement as gene therapies. At completion and review of certain research deliverables, Takeda has the option to obtain an exclusive license to develop and commercialize the novel protein sequences as part of its gene therapy program.
“Takeda is expanding on our long-standing expertise in rare genetic diseases and foundation in gene therapy by making focused investments in differentiated, next-generation technologies, including the exciting work Evozyne is doing with protein engineering,” said Takeda Rare Diseases Drug Discovery Unit Head Madhu Natarajan. “This partnership supports our focus to identify major treatment challenges across subsets of rare diseases, identify complementary technology approaches and partner with a network of innovative companies to develop transformative therapies for these patients.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Evozyne is eligible to receive an upfront payment and additional research, development and regulatory milestone payments; and royalties on sales of any commercial products resulting from the collaboration.
“This collaboration is an important opportunity for Evozyne and Takeda to utilize their strengths to find an innovative solution for those impacted by rare genetic diseases,” said Evozyne co-founder Jeff Aronin, chairman and CEO, Paragon Biosciences. “We are pleased to work with an organization that shares in our vision of solving great challenges.”