The Life Sciences team advised Wave Life Sciences Ltd. (NASDAQ:WVE) in the formation of a global strategic collaboration with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited to discover, develop and commercialize nucleic acid therapies for disorders of the central nervous system (CNS).
Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, Wave will give Takeda the option to co-develop and co-commercialize programs in Huntington’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia, and spinocerebellar ataxia type 3. Upon exercise of an option by Takeda, Takeda will co-develop and co-commercialize the applicable program with Wave, and the parties will share global costs and profits 50:50.
Takeda also will have the right to license several preclinical programs targeting CNS disorders, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Takeda will make an initial payment of $110 million to Wave, purchase $60 million of Wave’s ordinary shares, and also fund at least $60 million of Wave’s preclinical research to advance multiple preclinical targets selected by and licensed to Takeda. If Takeda advances six preclinical programs that achieve certain milestones, Wave will be eligible to receive more than $2 billion in milestone payments, of which more than $1 billion would be in pre-commercial milestone payments.
Wave Life Sciences is a biotechnology company focused on delivering transformational therapies for patients with serious, genetically-defined diseases. The company’s chemistry platform enables the creation of highly specific, well characterized oligonucleotides designed to deliver superior efficacy and safety across multiple therapeutic modalities.
The Goodwin team was led by partners Sarah Solomon, Gregg Katz and Kingsley Taft and counsel Kathleen Kean and included associate Shannyn Henke.
For additional details on the collaboration, please read the press release.