Presage Biosciences, Takeda Expand Partnership To Identify Oncology Drug Combinations

By Cyndi Root

Presage Biosciences, an oncology company in Seattle, has expanded its partnership with Takeda and its subsidiary Millenium Pharmaceuticals. The new agreement, announced in a press release, broadens Takeda’s access to Presage’s CIVO technology, used in identifying oncology drug combinations. The companies intend to evaluate different combinations to guide clinical decisions on Takeda’s pipeline agents.

Christopher Claiborne, Ph.D., Head of the Oncology Drug Discovery Unit at Takeda, said, “Working with Presage gives us access to a new type and depth of decision-enabling data from directly within the native tumor environment, including drug resistance and sensitivity, microenvironment effects, immune responses, and drug synergies.”

Presage and Takeda Agreement

Nathan Caffo, President of Presage, stated that the goal of the joint investigations is to use the CIVO arrayed microinjection technology to identify novel synergistic drug combinations. The system incorporates human data much earlier in the drug development process. The initial agreement between the two began in April 2012 and provided Takeda with access to the CIVO technology. The new agreement confers payment to Presage for developmental and regulatory milestones upon successful identification of novel drug combinations. The companies did not disclose any further financial details.

CIVO Technology

Presage’s CIVO technology, an arrayed microinjection and analysis platform, evaluates compounds for efficacy, drug resistance, and sensitization, and in combinations. In efficacy, investigators can compare multiple drugs at the same time. In drug resistance and sensitivity, the method identifies agents that react to other drugs. Drugs can be tested in combination with up to seven other drugs in a single tumor.

The technology platform is a device that inserts up to eight needles into the tumor of a person or animal. It delivers micro doses of a drug (less than 1/100th of a normal dose) into the tumor while the analysis system analyzes the drugs’ effects.

Presage is employing the technology in canine cancer and human xenograft tumors in mice. Together with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Presage is conducting a first-in-man feasibility of multiple microinjected drugs in lymphoma patients and is also conducting a safety study of CIVO microinjections. Presage partners with other oncology-focused companies like Takeda and licenses the CIVO platform.