A Japanese drug maker with a big presence in Cambridge and a French biotech startup whose tiny US office is located there have signed a licensing deal worth at least $50 million to the startup. Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. plans to make an upfront payment of $50 million to Enterome SA, a Paris-based biotech whose lead drug candidate would treat Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disorder. Under the deal, Enterome is also eligible to receive up to $640 million more if the two companies meet certain goals for developing the drug, getting it approved by regulators, and selling it to patients. Tokyo-based Takeda has more than 2,150 employees in Massachusetts, mostly in Cambridge, and would become even larger with its offer to $62 billion deal to buy Shire, which has about 3,000 employees here, primarily in Lexington and Cambridge. Takeda is also planning to relocate its US headquarters, which has nearly 1,000 employees, from suburban Chicago and to the Boston area. Enterome was established in 2012 to treat diseases associated with the human microbiome, the trillions of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes that live inside and on our bodies.
Date: October 29, 2018
Source: Bostonglobe
