Still reel­ing from PhII fail­ure, Calithera beefs up its on­col­o­gy port­fo­lio with a lit­tle help from Take­da

Calithera start­ed the year by ax­ing a third of its staff af­ter a mon­u­men­tal Phase II flop in re­nal cell car­ci­no­ma. And while CEO Su­san Mo­lin­eaux has re­fused to give up on the pro­gram, she’s go­ing to need an as­sist if she wants to close the year on a high­er note.

That’s where Take­da comes in.

For two up­front pay­ments of $10 mil­lion and $35 mil­lion, tiered roy­al­ties and an undis­closed amount in biobucks, Take­da is fork­ing over two Phase II-ready can­cer pro­grams to Calithera — one of which tar­gets KEAP1/NRF2 mu­ta­tions, the same ones Calithera is now pur­su­ing with its once-failed glu­t­a­m­i­nase in­hibitor tela­gle­na­s­tat.

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