Astellas expands deal with Pantherna on regenerative meds

Shares of Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma (TYO:4503) rose 2.2% to 1,965 yen yesterday, after it announced a research deal with Germany’s Pantherna Therapeutics, which aims to generate mRNA-based regenerative medicine programs using direct reprogramming (transdifferentiation).

This new deal expan ds the scope of the technology evaluation agreement for research, which the two companies signed in 2021, to include new target organ. As with their first deal, financial terms were not disclosed.

Pantherna owns a proprietary platform of state-of-the-art, unique mRNA molecules (PTXmRNAs) for enhancing the efficiency of mRNA actions in the body. Under the new accord, Pantherna’s mRNA platform and Astellas’ world-class drug discovery capabilities will be combined to promote research on the generation of regenerative medicine programs for new target organ using a direct reprogramming approach. Astellas will be responsible for providing drug discovery ideas, preparing candidate compounds for technology evaluation, and performing research aimed at developing this therapeutic modality, while Pantherna will be responsible for providing technical information and development support.