Takeda pays $400M to buy into Hutchmed’s colorectal cancer drug
Takeda will pay Hutchmed $400 million upfront to license an experimental cancer drug for use outside of China, with plans to complete a submission for U.S. approval in the first half of the year.
Per terms of the deal announced Monday, Takeda could pay Hutchmed an additional $730 million if the drug, called fruquintinib, meets certain regulatory and commercial milestones. Fruquintinib is already cleared in China to treat metastatic colorectal cancer. Takeda plans to seek approvals in the same indication in Europe and Japan after finalizing its U.S. application.
The deal is the second pricey licensing deal Takeda has signed in two months, following its $4 billion acquisition of an autoimmune disease treatment from Nimbus Therapeutics. If approved outside of China, fruquintinib would add to Takeda’s oncology portfolio, which is being pressured by generic competition to the multiple myeloma drug Velcade.
The 2018 approval of fruquintinib was notable as the first clearance in China for a cancer drug discovered and developed by one of the country’s biotechnology companies. Two years later, Eli Lilly partnered with Hutchmed to sell the drug in China under the drug name Elunate.
Since then, Hutchmed has worked to obtain approvals in other countries. That effort led to an international Phase 3 trial in colorectal cancer, the results of which were disclosed at a medical meeting in September and formed the basis of its application in the U.S.
In that study, treatment was associated with a 34% reduction in the risk of death versus a standard drug regimen in colorectal cancer patients whose disease had progressed after two prior therapies. Hutchmed began a so-called rolling submission to the Food and Drug Administration in December.
Fruquintinib homes in on a well-known protein called VEGF that’s implicated in tumor growth. Several VEGF-targeting drugs, like Roche’s Avastin and Eli Lilly’s Cyramza, are used to treat various types of cancer. Hutchmed’s medicine is meant to be more specific and, unlike those other drugs, is taken orally. In its statement, Takeda also noted the drug could be used across different subtypes of colorectal cancer patients.
“Fruquintinib has the potential to change the treatment landscape for patients with refractory metastatic colorectal cancer who are in need of additional treatment options,” said Teresa Bitetti, the head of Takeda’s oncology division, in the statement.
The drug could also help bolster that division’s sputtering revenue numbers. Takeda’s cancer drug revenue fell by 3.6%, to ¥225 billion ($1.7 billion) in the six month period that ended on Sept. 30. The decline was driven by a 62% drop in revenue for Velcade, which has long been one of the company’s top-selling cancer treatments.
Generic versions of Velcade were launched last year.
Published Jan. 24, 2023
