On December 17, 2020 Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. reported that it has entered into a Technology License Agreement with PeptiDream Inc., to non-exclusively license PeptiDream’s proprietary automated Peptide Discovery Platform System (PDPS) technology platform (Press release, Taiho, DEC 17, 2020, View Source [SID1234572977]).
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Under the terms of the agreement, Taiho Pharmaceutical will make an undisclosed upfront payment as a licensing fee. In addition, Taiho Pharmaceutical may make payments based on the achievement of certain predetermined development milestones for any constrained peptides and/or small molecules discovered from use of the automated PDPS platform, as well as royalties on sales of certain products that arise from use of the automated PDPS technology. Taiho Pharmaceutical and PeptiDream will also enter into a separate sales agreement related to the supply of reagents required for operation of the automated PDPS platform. Similar to previous technology license agreements, work on peptide-drug conjugates (PDCs) is excluded from the non-exclusive license.
Taiho Pharmaceutical is focusing on drug discovery using medium-sized molecules, a new modality, in addition to conventional drug discovery using small molecules. By utilizing the automated PDPS platform, the company aims to expand the possibilities of medium-sized molecule drug discovery and improve the probability of success in innovative new drug development.
"Thanks to its sophisticated automatic screening system and overwhelming diversity of compounds, including special peptides, we believe that PeptiDream’s drug discovery platform technology, PDPS, will expand the possibilities of drug discovery for treatment targets (undruggable targets) previously difficult in developing new drugs. We will carry out innovative drug discovery research using PDPS and commit to delivering new drugs to patients who currently have no treatment options." said Teruhiro Utsugi, Managing Director of Taiho Pharmaceutical.
"We are very much pleased by Taiho’s decision to adopt our automated PDPS platform, which we believe is a fruit of their appreciation of the value of PeptiDream’s macrocyclic/constrained peptide screening technology. With the automated PDPS platform, we are confident that Taiho’s drug discovery and research efforts will be greatly accelerated and contribute to further advance development of new therapeutics, including those with "difficult" targets by traditional approaches. We look forward to working with and supporting Taiho not only through the automated PDPS platform and supplies of reagents but on all aspects of our PDPS technology." said Keiichi Masuya PhD, Executive Vice President of PeptiDream.