Tenza Announces Research Collaboration to Develop Novel Therapeutics for Multiple Targets with Astellas

July 18th, 2023
Boston, MA, USA

Tenza, a pre-clinical stage company working to engineer novel therapeutic modalities using its proprietary synthetic biology platform, today announced it has entered into a research collaboration with Astellas Pharma Inc. (Astellas) to develop novel, engineered microbes for the treatment of multiple indications. This agreement builds upon a relationship that began with Tenza winning a LabCentral Golden Ticket sponsored by Astellas.

“Tenza’s microbes are designed to enable a safe, scalable, and orally available formulation for the delivery of protein- and peptide-based drugs that otherwise rely on injections,” remarked Anik Debnath, CEO of Tenza. “To pursue this goal with Astellas, given their track record developing drugs for the targeted indications, presents an unparalleled opportunity to demonstrate the value of Tenza’s approach, and accelerate the development of new treatment modalities that address critical unmet needs.”  

“We are pleased to close a collaboration research agreement with Tenza,” said Taro Masunaga, Executive Vice President of Discovery Accelerator, Astellas Pharma Inc. “We believe Tenza's synthetic biology platform could be an important approach for creating a new class of medicine, engineered microbes. The partnership will discover and accelerate to deliver new treatments for patients suffering from currently poorly served diseases.” 

Under the collaboration, Tenza will be responsible for early-stage research activities, and the two parties will be jointly responsible for further research activities. Financial terms of the collaboration have not been disclosed.

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