Takeda is taking back the home license for a phase 3-stage depression drug as part of an amendment to its multi-asset collaboration with Neurocrine Biosciences.
Osavampator, formerly known as NBI-1065845 or TAK-653, is an AMPA potentiator, meaning it boosts signaling through AMPA receptors as a potential treatment for stubborn depression. The therapy scored a phase 2 win last year by showing that it significantly reduced depression severity among adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) who haven’t benefited from at least one previous antidepressant.
Neurocrine announced this morning that it has now begun dosing patients in a phase 3 trial of osavampator as an adjunctive treatment to antidepressants for MDD.
Neurocrine landed an exclusive license to osavampator as part of a 2020 deal worth up to $2 billion with Takeda that also covered six other assets from the Japanese pharma’s early- to midstage psychiatry pipeline.
The San Diego-based company announced in a post-market release Jan. 27 that the terms of the agreement have been updated, returning the Japanese rights for osavampator to Takeda while Neurocrine holds the rights for the rest of the world.
Each company will be responsible for development costs in their respective regions and will receive a share of royalty payments from the other.
“This streamlined collaboration structure allows Neurocrine to focus on bringing this important medicine to patients as quickly as possible,” Neurocrine CEO Kyle Gano, Ph.D., said in
“With its long-standing expertise developing therapies for serious psychiatric disorders, Neurocrine is the ideal partner to develop osavampator," Sarah Sheikh, head, neuroscience therapeutic area unit and head, global development at Takeda, said in the same release. “As it continues to progress through clinical development, osavampator has the potential to add a meaningful new treatment option for patients with MDD.”
Not all of the drugs covered by Takeda’s original pact with Neurocrine have been as successful as osavampator. Neurocrine scrapped a DAAO inhibitor called luvadaxistat last year after the candidate failed a phase 2 schizophrenia trial. In yesterday’s release, Neurocrine singled out NBI-1070770, which is undergoing a phase 2 trial in MDD, and a preclinical GPR139 antagonist program as examples of drugs from the collaboration that it is currently working on.