Takeda strikes $500M+ deal for California biotech’s ALS program

Take­da is bet­ting more than half a bil­lion dol­lars on a Cal­i­for­nia biotech’s ap­proach to treat­ing amy­otroph­ic lat­er­al scle­ro­sis (ALS) and oth­er neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases.

The Japan­ese phar­ma gi­ant has inked a $580 mil­lion deal (in­clud­ing an undis­closed up­front pay­ment and po­ten­tial mile­stones) for AcuraStem’s PIK­FYVE ther­a­pies, in­clud­ing an ALS can­di­date near­ing the clin­ic called AS-202. By sup­press­ing lev­els of the PIK­FYVE ki­nase, which was re­cent­ly iden­ti­fied as a tar­get for ALS, AcuraStem hopes it can clear out tox­ic pro­tein ag­gre­gates and pro­tect neu­ronal func­tion.

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