Otsuka Pharmaceutical is paying at least $800 million to acquire Jnana Therapeutics, a Roche-partnered small molecule drug discovery outfit ready to put its first candidate into a pivotal trial next year.
Boston-based Jnana would become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Otsuka, the companies announced early Thursday. Otsuka’s longstanding global expansion drive has led it to buy other discovery startups such as Astex in Cambridge, UK (working in oncology and neurology), antibody- and autoimmune-focused Visterra based in Waltham, MA, and Canadian psychedelic company Mindset Pharma.
One of the top pharma companies in Japan, Otsuka also joins a class of “next-gen,” non-traditional biopharma acquirers in making their M&A mark this year.
With Jnana, Otsuka is buying a chemoproteomics platform that takes a binding-based screening approach.
Co-founded by Stuart Schreiber and Ramnik Xavier of the Broad, Jnana had originally started with a focus on a protein class known as solute carriers, or SLC, transporters. But under CEO Joanne Kotz and former CSO Joel Barrish (who were also co-founders), it’s expanded its scope over the years to also look for compounds against “undruggable” targets, both internally and through partnerships with Roche.
Its lead candidate, JNT-517, targets an SLC transporter. Earlier this year, the company reported promising proof-of-concept results from an early trial in a rare metabolic disease known as phenylketonuria, or PKU. Its pill helped a small group of patients lower their levels of phenylalanine, a protein building block that they are unable to break down.
The company is eyeing a registrational study in 2025. While there are already two approved treatments for PKU, Otsuka said the majority of patients aren’t treated effectively and JNT-517 could “address individuals of all ages across the spectrum of mild to severe disease.”
Discussions with Otsuka began earlier this year, Kotz said in an interview with Endpoints News, initially surrounding the PKU program and gradually expanding to cover the entirety of Jnana. While the biotech also considered a private financing round and explored other paths forward, Otsuka ultimately stood out because of the alignment on goals and culture as well as the opportunity to tap into a large, global infrastructure, Kotz said, noting that Astex and Visterra offer “really exciting models.”
“What I think is quite exciting with the global footprint is the way that enables our ability to think about clinical development and commercialization on a global scale,” she said.
Beyond the Phase 1b/2 program, Jnana has also identified preclinical candidates for autoimmune diseases. So far, the only target it’s disclosed is interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3), which it calls a master transcription factor for the production of interferon.
Kotz declined to immediately comment on timelines for those programs or the future of the Roche-partnered assets, adding that specifics will be worked out over time.
Jnana’s last financing round was a $107 million Series C in late 2022, with deep-pocketed investors such as Bain Capital Life Sciences, RA Capital Management, Polaris Partners, Versant Ventures, Avalon Ventures, Pfizer Ventures and AbbVie Ventures.
The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2024. On top of the $800 million upfront, shareholders could receive up to $325 million more in development and regulatory milestones.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comments from CEO Joanne Kotz.