Astellas Pharma Acquires Xyphos for Up to $665M to Advance Immuno-Oncology Pipeline with Proprietary Cell Therapy Platform

On December 26, 2019, VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) learned that Astellas Pharma had acquired Xyphos. Upon completion of the acquisition, Astellas Pharma paid $120 million, making Xyphos a wholly-owned subsidiary of Astellas Pharma. Additionally, Astellas Pharma will provide a total transaction value of $665 million in future development stages. The impact of this acquisition on Astellas Pharma’s financial performance for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020, was limited.

Astellas Pharma is a Japanese company primarily engaged in the pharmaceutical and related products business. The company operates two business segments: the Pharmaceutical Products and Related Products segment, which is involved in the development, manufacturing, and sales of pharmaceuticals, with products distributed to domestic and international markets (including Japan, North America, Europe, and Asia); and the Other segment, which is primarily engaged in real estate operations. In July 2010, Astellas Pharma established a subsidiary in Brazil.

The acquisition aims to enable Astellas Pharma to leverage Xyphos’s proprietary advanced cell control technology, derived from its engineered ligand platform, to develop novel approaches for directing immune cells to locate, modulate, and destroy target cells in vivo. Xyphos has developed a flexible and versatile synthetic biology platform that guides immune cells to target single or multiple tumor antigens while controlling the proliferation and persistence of these immune cells. Xyphos’s proprietary molecules can be delivered into natural immune cells or engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) cells to generate immunotherapies for cancer. The company’s first convertible CAR-T cell candidate is currently in preclinical development, with initial human clinical trials planned for 2021.

Kensu Yasukawa, President and Chief Executive Officer of Astellas Pharma, stated, “At Astellas Pharma, immuno-oncology is a primary focus of our R&D strategy, and we are dedicated to developing next-generation cancer immunotherapies using novel approaches and technologies. The innovative technology being developed by Xyphos is well-suited to advance our immuno-oncology strategy. By integrating this technology with our current capabilities in cell therapy, we can jointly create next-generation, high-functionality cells and maximize the value of the technology. We look forward to collaborating with the talented team at Xyphos to advance and expand their clinical development programs, bringing their novel therapies to patients.”

James Knighton, CEO of Xyphos, stated, “At Xyphos, we are advancing an innovative cell therapy technology platform, representing an exciting new approach with the potential to treat and cure cancer. Astellas Pharma’s commitment to immuno-oncology makes it an ideal partner, which will benefit the development of our proprietary NKG2D-based NK cell and T cell platforms.”

Xyphos is a development-stage private biotechnology company based in California, USA. The company focuses on developing immuno-oncology therapies aimed at harnessing patients’ immune systems to cure cancer. Currently, Xyphos is dedicated to developing a flexible and controllable CAR-T cell therapy, offering a novel approach to cancer treatment for patients.

(Compiled by Wang Jingna)