Quick Links
You are about to leave www.astellas.com and enter a third-party website. Astellas is not responsible for the content or services on the third-party website.
Would you like to continue?
Astellas is committed to providing timely and accurate information about our business, science and products. This section offers global resources for investors, journalists and media professionals. News and resources from our local affiliates can be viewed in the Local news section. If you are not an investor or journalist, click here.
TOKYO and Hennigsdorf, Germany, October 4, 2022 - Astellas Pharma Inc. (TSE:4503, President and CEO: Kenji Yasukawa, Ph.D., “Astellas”) and Pantherna Therapeutics GmbH (CEO:Klaus Giese, Ph.D., “Pantherna”) today announced that the companies have entered into a new technology evaluation agreement for research to generate mRNA-based regenerative medicine programs using direct reprogramming (transdifferentiation)*.
This agreement expands the scope of the technology evaluation agreement for research, which Astellas and Pantherna entered into in 2021, to include new target organ.
Pantherna owns a proprietary platform of state-of-the-art, unique mRNA molecules (PTXmRNAs) for enhancing the efficiency of mRNA actions in the body. Under the new agreement, Pantherna’s mRNA platform and Astellas’ world-class drug discovery capabilities will be combined to promote research on the generation of regenerative medicine programs for new target organ using a direct reprogramming approach. Astellas will be responsible for providing drug discovery ideas, preparing candidate compounds for technology evaluation, and performing research aimed at developing this therapeutic modality, while Pantherna will be responsible for providing technical information and development support.
“We are excited about this expansion of our collaboration with Astellas,” said Pantherna’s Chief Executive Officer, Klaus Giese, Ph.D. “We feel honored that Astellas, as a leading pharmaceutical company, has underscored their interest in leveraging the unique aspects of our proprietary therapeutic mRNA technology.”
“Through this agreement, which expands the scope of our collaboration with Pantherna, we will create innovative regenerative medicine programs for new target organ, and we expect that we will be able to thereby expand the treatment options for diseases with high unmet medical needs.” said Taiji Sawamoto, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Applied Research & Operations, at Astellas. “The collaboration with Pantherna is an initiative which synergistically integrates Astellas' expertise with mRNA as a therapeutic modality and its capabilities cultivated in the research field of direct reprogramming, and will promote the development of next-generation treatments using a new modality/technology based on the Focus Area approach strategy.”
Click below for a copy of the full press release
Follow us
