Thursday, October 8, 2020

Takeda Broadens Its Rare Disease Portfolio By Partnering With Arrowhead

Takeda (TAK) has identified both rare diseases and gastrointestinal diseases (or GI) as key areas of interest and R&D focus. On Thursday morning, Takeda put even more money on the table, signing a partnership agreement with Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals (ARWR) for its ARO-AAT RNA interference (or RNAi) drug for alpha-1 antitrypsin-associated liver disease (or AATLD).

With Arrowhead having a multiyear head start, and recently producing very encouraging data from a small Phase II cohort, this is a promising deal for Takeda. Given the mechanisms of action, RNAi drugs should have relatively lower late-stage failure rates, and the market opportunity in AATLD could be in the several billions of dollars. While Takeda’s size does limit the materiality of this deal to a point, an upfront investment of $300M for the chance at a multibillion-dollar drug is a deal worth doing, and for Arrowhead this yet another Big Pharma partnership to help validate a striking clinical comeback with a new delivery technology.

 

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Takeda Broadens Its Rare Disease Portfolio By Partnering With Arrowhead

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