Luxna and SPI Announce License Agreement for manufacturing and sales of Luxna’s xeno modified nucleic acid amidite
Osaka, Japan, December 17th, 2024 – Luxna Biotech Co., Ltd. (President CEO: Hideaki Sato, Headquarters: Suita-shi, Osaka, Japan, hereinafter “Luxna”) and Summit Pharmaceuticals International Corporation (President & CEO: Katsuya Okuyama, Headquarters: Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, hereinafter “SPI”) today announced that the parties have entered into a license agreement (hereinafter “License Agreement”) to grant a non-exclusive license to SPI for manufacturing and sales of the DNA type modified nucleic acid, 5’-CP™ amidite, which is one of the Luxna’s breakthrough xeno nucleic acid technology (hereinafter “Luxna XNAs Technology”) . Under the License Agreement, SPI will have the non-exclusive worldwide right to manufacture and sell 5’-CP™ amidite. SPI will not develop, manufacture and sell oligonucleotide drugs, but will manufacture and sell amidite, which is used as a raw material for oligonucleotide drugs.
Luxna will receive an undisclosed upfront payment upon execution of the License Agreement. Luxna may receive milestone payments based on the 5’-CP™ amidite business progress. Luxna is also eligible to receive royalties based on the amount of 5’-CP™ amidite sold by SPI.
To date, Luxna and SPI have jointly established a supply chain for AmNA™ amidite and scpBNA™ amidite, which are bridged type modified nucleic acids using Luxna XNAs Technology. SPI has already obtained worldwide non-exclusive manufacturing and sales rights from Luxna for AmNA™ amidite in November 2022 and for scpBNA™ amidite in March 2023. Luxna and SPI will work to promote the development and social implementation of oligonucleotide drugs with the goal of further disseminating Luxna XNAs Technology from the supply side of various amidites.
Hideaki Sato, President CEO of Luxna, commented as follows: “Luxna and SPI have been collaborating for approximately 7 years to establish a supply chain for AmNA™ and scpBNA™ amidite, utilizing Luxna’s amidite synthesis technology and SPI’s supply chain network. We are very pleased to announce that, in addition to AmNA™ and scpBNA™ amidites, 5′-CP™ amidite will now be manufactured and marketed at SPI. We expect that SPI will establish a system that provides a stable supply of various types of high-quality amidites, which will promote the development of oligonucleotide drugs using Luxna XNAs Technology and accelerate their social implementation.”
Katsuya Okuyama, CEO of SPI, commented as follows: “Oligonucleotide drugs are attracting attention as a new drug discovery modality, with an increasing number of products in development and approved in recent years. The use of Luxna XNAs Technology is expected to improve the efficacy and safety in oligonucleotide drug development and is expected to be increasingly used in the future. We hope to leverage our supply chain network to help spread Luxna XNAs Technology as widely as possible.”
About Luxna XNAs Technology
Luxna XNAs Technology collectively means an innovative nucleic acid group of AmNA™, scpBNA™, GuNA™ and 5’-CP™ originated in Professor Obika’s laboratory at the Osaka University Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Bioorganic Chemistry. Luxna XNAs Technology could make available ASOs with high activity and low toxicity, by taking advantage of its characteristics of strong binding to mRNA and/or reduced toxicity.
About 5’-CP™
5′-CP™ is a DNA-type modified nucleic acid that can be incorporated into the Gap region of antisense oligonucleotide (hereinafter “ASO”). A unique feature of 5′-CP™ is that it is expected to reduce neurotoxicity when incorporated into ASO.
About amidite
Amidite is a phosphoramidite (nucleic acid monomer) used as a raw material in the production of oligonucleotides (nucleic acid oligomers), which are the active ingredients in oligonucleotide drugs.
About Luxna Biotech Co., Ltd.
Luxna is a biotech founded to develop safer and more effective oligonucleotide therapies (OTs) for practical use using the drug discovery platform, called LuxiAP™*, based on modified nucleic acids originated at Osaka University. Our purpose is to bring OTs for patients with difficult-to-treat diseases. We actively collaborate with several pharmaceutical companies in developing new and effective OTs as well as advancing our own.
* LuxiAP™ stands for “Luxna’s XNAs incorporated Antisense Platform”, which is an antisense nucleic acid drug discovery platform that incorporates Luxna XNAs Technology. LuxiAP™ is a unique platform technology that increases the probability of success in drug discovery and efficiently generates development candidate compounds in about 18 months to two years.
About Summit Pharmaceuticals International Corporation
SPI provides high-quality, integrated products and services for the pharmaceutical industry, from research equipment and biological resources for drug discovery research, pharmaceutical licensing, and research partnership support, to the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, intermediates for new drugs, generics, and biologics. Our parent company, Sumitomo Corporation, is one of the world’s leading global companies, with a network of 125 locations in 63 countries and 20 locations within Japan (as of September 30, 2024), offering a wide range of products and services.
Contact
Luxna Biotech Co., Ltd.
E-mail: info@luxnabiotech.co.jp
HP : https://luxnabiotech.co.jp/
Summit Pharmaceuticals International Corporation
Discovery and Alliance Coordination Department
Email: alliance@summitpharma.co.jp
HP: https://www.summitpharma.co.jp/english/
