Bio­gen push­es in a fresh stack of chips and starts prep­ping a glob­al R&D game plan af­ter watch­ing the cards turn on ear­ly throm­bolyt­ic da­ta

Af­ter pa­tient­ly steer­ing through a decade-long jour­ney for its ear­ly-stage clin­i­cal work, a small Tokyo biotech has clinched a deal to out-li­cense its lead throm­bolyt­ic agent to US heavy­weight Bio­gen — which sees a po­ten­tial­ly game-chang­ing im­pact on the clot-bust­ing field af­ter tak­ing a care­ful look at some up­beat Phase IIa da­ta.

Three years af­ter Bio­gen an­ted up $4 mil­lion to gain an op­tion on the drug from TMS, the big US biotech is mak­ing a small bet to beef up its stroke port­fo­lio. The BD team inked a deal to go ahead and grab rights to the drug for $18 mil­lion, with an­oth­er $335 mil­lion in mile­stone cash on the ta­ble for a suc­cess­ful out­come.

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