A new drug development venture has been formed by Frazier Healthcare Partners around an early clinical stage molecule for incontinence acquired globally from Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

Outpost Medicine, a Boston, Massachusetts-based urology and gynecology-focused start-up, has been granted an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize OP-223 (formerly TAK-233) for stress urinary incontinence (SUI). [See Deal]

The oral molecule has a so far undisclosed mechanism of action and has already completed some early Japanese clinical studies in healthy women.

The financial terms of the deal were undisclosed but Outpost has in parallel completed a $41m first financing round led by Frazier - a US private equity group that provides growth capital to health care firms - and other investors including Novo A/S, Adams Street Partners and Vivo Capital. Takeda was not named as a participant in the round. [See Deal]

There are currently no approved drugs for SUI in the US, where an estimated roughly 18 million women suffer from the condition in which physical movement or activity such as sneezing and exercise put pressure on weakened urethral sphincter or pelvic floor muscles and lead to unintended discharge of urine.

Available treatments in other markets tend to be poorly tolerated or have limited efficacy, Outpost states.

SUI is distinct from overactive bladder or urge incontinence, in which the bladder muscles contract involuntarily and for which various drug therapies have been commercialized.

By contrast, BioMedTracker shows that there are only a few other firms currently working on female SUI therapies, notably [Cook MyoSite Inc.], which has an approach based on autologous muscle-derived cells in Phase III development.

Strategic Rationale

Takeda is looking to focus its R&D resources on its core therapeutic areas of oncology, gastroenterology and CNS disorders, and "it is important that we seek alternatives to further develop and create value around promising assets that lay outside these areas of focus," Takeda's chief medical and scientific officer Dr. Andrew Plump said in a statement.

The company has been shedding other non-core assets in recent months, most significantly several products in its mature Japanese commercial portfolio to a new, minority-owned joint venture in Japan with generics giant Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.([A#28151227003]).

There have also been similar moves over the past few years by other Japanese firms such as Astellas Pharma Inc. to spin off non-core pipeline molecules into external development vehicles, through which the originator usually retains a financial interest in the future success of the asset.

In Takeda's case there is also a strong personal link with Frazier, where the Japanese firm's former chief medical and scientific officer, Dr. Tadataka Yamada, is now a venture partner following his recent retirement.

Yamada - who earlier in his career was R&D chair at GlaxoSmithKline PLC - is the chairman and co-founder of Outpost along with another Frazier venture partner, David Socks, who is acting as interim CEO of the new venture, which also has an office in London.

Frazier manages around $2.8bn in committed capital and is an investor in around 170 health care companies, its life sciences team concentrating on therapeutics for unmet needs.

Takeda Moves Incontinence Candidate To New Venture

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