Takeda Ends Agreement with Poseida

Poseida Therapeutics, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said Takeda had terminated its collaboration and license agreement from October 2021.

The agreement called for Poseida to use its proprietary genetic engineering platform technologies to create cell and gene therapies to develop up to eight gene therapies. Under the agreement, Takeda paid Poseida $45 million in upfront and preclinical milestones with a total potential up to $3.6 billion in potential total value.

The termination of the agreement follows Takeda’s announcement in April that it was stopping work on AAV gene therapies. At the time, the company said it was maintaining its rare disease unit and would focus on late-stage development rare programs in that unit moving forward.

Takeda said the termination of the collaboration agreement will be effective July 30, 2023. Upon termination of the agreement, Poseida said it may seek new strategic collaborations in gene therapy that could include some or all of the programs previously included in the Takeda collaboration and potentially additional internal programs. It said it has no present commitments or agreements to enter into any such strategic collaborations.

Poseida said it expects that its cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments together with the remaining near-term milestones and other payments from other collaborations will continue to be sufficient to fund operations into at least mid-2024.