Astellas teams up with Cullgen for protein degraders research

Japanese drug major Astellas Pharma (TYO: 4503) has entered a research collaboration and exclusive option agreement with privately held clinical-stage US biotech firm Cullgen to discover multiple innovative protein degraders.

The two companies aim to develop multiple targeted protein degraders by combining Cullgen's proprietary uSMITE targeted protein degradation platform featuring novel E3 ligands with Astellas' drug discovery capabilities. Cullgen and Astellas will collaboratively conduct joint research to identify clinical development candidates.

Astellas will then have an exclusive option of exclusively license the rights for clinical development and commercialization of the protein degrader compounds identified during the research activities. Cullgen will have the option during the initial stages of clinical development to participate equally in the costs, profits and losses, and to co-promote partnered products in the USA for the lead program, previously identified by Cullgen as a cell cycle protein degrader for the treatment of breast cancer and other solid tumors.