Takeda, Frazier create Phathom Pharmaceuticals to spur development of GI drug vonoprazan in $140M play
With fourteen gastroenterology assets in its pipeline, Takeda $TAK has its hands full. The company — newly merged with Shire — is thus farming out the ex-Japan development of its acid-fighter Vonoprazan to a company it has created with the venture partners at Frazier: Phathom Pharmaceuticals.
Vonoprazan is a P-CAB — a class of drugs that blocks the potassium-binding site of gastric hydrogen potassium ATPase (also known as the proton pump), which is the enzyme largely responsible for acidification of the stomach — discovered and developed by Takeda. The drug — which is designed to overcome many of the perceived weaknesses of traditional proton pump inhibitor therapy (such as short half-life, requiring 3–5 cycles of administration before achieving full effect) — was approved in 2015 by Japanese regulators for various GI conditions including gastric and duodenal ulcers as well as H. pylori infections.
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