Takeda in $1.7B AI drug discovery deal with Iambic

 After sharing word that it would be prioritizing artificial intelligence to aid discovery work, Takeda Pharmaceuticals has inked a multiyear deal to access Iambic Therapeutics' broad suite of drug discovery platforms for up to $1.7 billion biobucks.

"As you think about the AI space, work your way through landscape, and categorize Iambic as company, it is not about AI hype," Iambic CEO Tom Miller told Fierce Biotech. "We are showing in patients that these drugs are better, creating validation."

Tokyo-based Takeda has decided to leverage Iambic’s software and drug discovery assets to advance certain small molecule programs, with the work starting in the oncology, gastrointestinal and inflammation therapeutic areas. Iambic’s generative model NeuralPLexer, which is designed to predict protein ligand complexes, is also part of the deal. 

Upfront, research cost and tech access payments are part of the deal, though the companies didn't reveal specific numbers. In addition, Iambic could receive milestone-based payments that could exceed $1.7 billion, according to the Feb. 9 press release.

The deal's financial potential makes it one of the largest AI drug discovery deals to date in a rapidly growing field. The collaboration also builds on Iambic’s other partnerships, a roster that includes Revolution Medicines, Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Lundbeck.

“Our collaboration with Takeda is a powerful opportunity to apply our AI-driven discovery and development platform, and we are excited to partner with their team to quickly advance new and better drug candidates,” Miller said in the release. “This collaboration further validates our industry-leading technology and highlights both the breadth of our discovery capabilities and the scale at which we can operate.”  

The deal is unique for Iambic because it licenses both software and drug discovery platforms, which support a “rapid design-make-test-analyze” cycle that can accelerate drug development, according to the company. By identifying novel chemical modalities for difficult-to-address targets, Iambic’s platform is built to find diverse candidates for development.

"The Takeda deal is a combination of both tech deployment and involved drug discovery," Miller said in the interview. "It continues traction in the ways which we can monetize the platform."

Though Iambic is happy to welcome partners, Miller emphasized that the company only collaborates when it feels a potential agreement will make its own pipeline stronger. He says Iambic’s goal is not to create as many partnerships as possible, but to grow its wholly owned pipeline, gain expertise and contribute to scaling its solutions. 

AI drug discovery biotechs have proliferated, but there are few that have created assets that have made it to the clinical stage and even fewer that have created candidates with clinically differentiated data. Iambic’s most advanced asset, oral oncology candidate IAM1363, delivered promising early-phase clinical data last fall prior to the company’s $100 million fundraise in November.

Iambic’s platform is disease agnostic; the company's internal efforts and its partnerships have targeted conditions from migraines to cancer as well as gastrointestinal and inflammation-related diseases.

For the former Cal Tech professor turned Iambic CEO, the Takeda partnership is further evidence that the firm has moved beyond the AI hype that is so prevalent in the industry. “This deal is reinforcing our thesis that better tech leads to better meds,” Miller said. “It provides a validation and value assignment, showing patients that these drugs are better.”

Along with Takeda, other large pharmas and biotechs are looking to strengthen their R&D rosters with AI partners. Last week, Qilu Pharmaceutical locked in a $120 million deal for Insilico Medicine’s AI drug development capabilities in the cardiometabolic disease area.

The Iambic deal is more evidence of Takeda’s 2024 strategy shift to focus from 10 modalities to four: small molecules, biologics, antibody-drug conjugates and allogeneic cell therapies. Last fall, the focus shrunk again when Takeda abandoned cell therapy altogether, resulting in 140 layoffs. 

Takeda’s refined focus resulted in another AI partnership in October with drug designer Nabla Bio and a $1.2 payment to Innovent Biologics for the rights to two of its cancer candidates.

The Nabla-Takeda deal value could reach more than $1 billion biobucks if future milestones are met. Nabla’s Joint Atomic Model will work across Takeda’s early-stage programs to generate new antibodies, multispecifics and other therapeutic targets simultaneously. 

Takeda’s Innovent partnership could result in $10.2 billion in milestones and is meant to bridge the steep patent cliff created by the company’s inflammatory bowel disease drug Entyvio. The deal gives Takeda the rights to two Innovent candidates that have shown promise in fighting tumors in clinical studies.

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/takeda-inks-17b-ai-discovery-deal-iambic-therapeutics