Takeda and Cour in coeliac disease collaboration

Takeda and Cour Pharmaceutical Development Company have announced a partnership to research and develop novel immune modulating therapies for the potential treatment of coeliac disease.

Dr Gareth Hicks, head of Takeda’s Gastroenterology Drug Discovery Unit, said, “In line with our GI (gastrointestinal) drug discovery unit’s focus on building partnerships with groups developing highly novel therapeutic approaches to the treatment of GI diseases, we are excited to initiate this significant collaboration with Cour to create potential new and innovative therapies to meet the substantially unmet needs of these patients.”

The partnership will focus on using nanotechnologies based on Cour’s Tolerizing Immune Modifying nanoParticle (TIMP) platform, which can be extended to certain autoimmune and allergic conditions by inhibiting the abnormal immune responses that cause disease, without affecting the beneficial parts of the immune system. 

Collaboration to explore if TIMP therapy will allow coeliac disease patients to tolerate gluten

The collaboration will explore the potential of TIMP therapy to allow coeliac patients to tolerate gluten in their diet. The TIMPs consist of a proprietary polymer and antigenic proteins, which are fully encapsulated for safety and administered intravenously. The TIMP compounds target the underlying cause of coeliac disease by systemically targeting and controlling, gluten-reactive T-cells in patients, as opposed to broad immunosuppression.

Cour will receive upfront and success based milestone payments from Takeda leading to an exclusive option to acquire a global license to the TIMP-GLIA programme after the completion of a Phase 2a clinical trial. Cour will also receive royalties on sales of any successful commercialised products resulting from the partnership. Takeda will also have the option to collaborate on up to three additional TIMP compounds each with development, regulatory, and sales milestones and royalties on sales.

“Cour is very pleased to be partnering with Takeda, and our collaboration marks an important breakthrough in the development of therapies for patients suffering from coeliac disease,” said John J. Puisis, CEO and co-founder of Cour. “Takeda is the ideal partner based on the company’s strong foundation in gastroenterology and expertise in the discovery and development of therapies meeting unmet needs in patients suffering from gastrointestinal diseases.”