Noile-Immune inks CAR-T collaboration with Japanese pharma major

Japan-based start-up Noile-Immune Biotech has entered into a collaboration to develop next generation chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy (CAR-T) with Japan’s largest drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical (TYO: 4502).

The next generation CAR-T cell therapy was developed by Professor Koji Tamada at Yamaguchi University and Noile-Immune has an exclusive license for this platform technology. The CAR-T therapy produces cytokines, chemokines, and other molecules, which is expected to potentially influence or alter the tumor microenvironment of solid tumor tissues to enhance the anti-tumor effect of the therapy. The companies intend to use this technology to discover and develop new CAR-T cell immunotherapies, with the aim of treating a broad range of cancers.

The collaboration between Takeda and Noile-Immune will accelerate R&D of CAR-T cell therapy. In addition to providing resources required for implementation, Takeda will make a technology access payment to Noile-Immune Biotech and additionally Takeda will make an equity investment. Takeda will have exclusive options to obtain licensing rights for the development and commercialization of Noile-Immune’s pipeline and products resulting from this partnership on pre-agreed terms. Additional terms of this deal are not disclosed.