Astellas to buy out Maxygen’s stake in joint venture Perseid

Astellas has agreed a deal with collaborative partner Maxygen to take sole control of Perseid Therapeutics, the joint venture company created by the two firms.

Under the terms of its buyout option, Astellas will pay Maxygen $76 million (47.04 million pounds) in exchange for its ownership interest in Perseid, which will make it a wholly-owned Astellas subsidiary.

Perseid was established in September 2009 as part of a collaboration on the development of multiple protein pharmaceuticals, which includes the Maxy-4 programme for autoimmune diseases and transplant rejection.

This buyout will give Astellas full rights to Maxy-4, which encompasses the investigational rheumatoid arthritis treatment ASP2408 that is currently undergoing phase I testing.

Astellas states that the move "will contribute to reinforcing the drug discovery and research platform for biologics as well as enriching the pipeline in the immunology field".

Earlier this week, the company announced that it will be providing a donation to help relief efforts in its native Japan following the recent earthquake and tsunami.