Deal Insight: Daiichi Sankyo, DarwinHealth R&D agreement

Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited and DarwinHealth announced they have entered into a research agreement providing Daiichi Sankyo with exclusive access to DarwinHealth’s proprietary novel cancer target database in order to identify potential new targets for cancer drug development.

DarwinHealth’s proprietary database and technology were created to identify critical mechanisms linked to tumour dependencies and maintenance beyond genetic mutations, and include information on Master Regulators of specific tumour subtypes, as well as direct upstream modulators (both necessary for cancer cell maintenance) across more than 35 tumour and 90 tumour subtypes.

“The purpose of this agreement is to identify novel, high-value cancer targets that can subsequently be prioritized and undergo rigorous experimental validation to drive drug development for a new generation of anti-cancer therapies that would be designed, developed, and owned by Daiichi Sankyo,” said Gideon Bosker, MD, chief executive officer, DarwinHealth.

DarwinHealth will receive an upfront payment and has the potential to receive development and commercialization milestone payments should specified events occur relating to DarwinHealth’s novel cancer targets. Daiichi Sankyo will receive exclusive access to DarwinHealth’s novel cancer target database for a predetermined amount of time with an option to extend. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.