A collaboration to develop next generation chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy (CAR-T) (RELATED: Kite begins EU trial of CAR–T therapy) was announced by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE: 4502) and Noile-Immune Biotech Inc..

The next generation CAR-T cell therapy was developed by Professor Koji Tamada at Yamaguchi University and Noile-Immune has exclusive license for this platform technology. The CAR-T therapy produces cytokines, chemokines, and other molecules, which is expected to potentially influence or alter the tumor microenvironment of solid tumor tissues to enhance the anti-tumor effect of the therapy. The companies intend to use this technology to discover and develop newCAR-T cell immunotherapies, with the aim of treating a broad range of cancers.

The collaboration between Takeda and Noile-Immune Biotech will accelerate research and development of CAR-T cell therapy. In addition to providing resources required for implementation, Takeda will make a technology access payment to Noile-Immune Biotech and additionally Takeda will make an equity investment. Takeda will have exclusive options to obtain licensing rights for the development and commercialization of Noile-Immune’s pipeline and products resulting from this partnership on pre-agreed terms. Additional terms of this agreement are not disclosed.

“This technology forms the basis for developing potentially transformational treatments for solid tumors,” said Dr. Hidenobu Ishizaki, President of Noile-Immune. “The platform was developed by our founder, director, and CSMO, Professor Koji Tamada at the Department of Immunology at Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine. We believe our collaboration with Takeda is a significant step towards rapidly delivering therapies that use this technology to cancer patients.”

“We recognize the enormous potential of next-generation CAR-T cell therapy technology to deliver transformative medicines in oncology, one of our core therapeutic areas,” said Chris Arendt, Head of the Oncology Drug Discovery Unit, Takeda. “This collaboration is another example of our commitment to invest in highly innovative technologies and to work with top external scientific and clinical teams as we seek to deliver therapies that address the needs of patients with cancer.  We are especially excited that our collaboration with the outstanding team at Noile-Immune will be located at our cutting-edge Shonan Research Center in Japan, allowing our Takeda scientists to work side-by-side with the Noile-Immune team to accelerate the advancement of innovative cellular immunotherapies to the clinic.”

Takeda signed an agreement with Noile-Immune through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.