The push for more partnerships in pharma is expected to continue even after the pandemic subsides. Building an effective partnership remains a challenge for even the largest and most established companies, though, particularly as the dynamics around alliances and collaborations evolve.

Recognizing the need for a more strategic approach to partnering, Astellas, a Japanese multinational pharma company that specializes in oncology, has begun adopting strategies that ensure strong alliances fit within overall corporate objectives.

The company’s chief strategy officer and chief business officer, Naoki Okamura, who has built numerous successful partnerships for Astellas, recently realigned the company’s objectives around drug discovery, which led to the establishment of a “focus area approach” as the foundation for building the portfolio and driving innovation.

“Coupled with in-house research and development, we are actively seeking collaboration opportunities to access capabilities beyond our organization that help us realize innovation and address unmet medical needs,” Okamura says. 

The classic partnership based on a small biotech’s molecule and a Big Pharma’s development and marketing knowledge is no longer the only type of alliance companies are leveraging.

“We are seeing more alliances form with academia, clinical collaborations for combination therapies, digital therapeutics, and platform-based multi-asset deals. Just watch where the science is focused, and you’ll see new collaborations follow,” he says. “Our goal is to turn innovative science into value for patients.”

Here, Okamura shares the drivers behind the focus area approach, the integral role he has played in establishing and building successful partnerships for Astellas, and key considerations for the industry when collaborating with others.

PharmaVoice: What does the focus area approach mean for Astellas and how does it impact the way the business handles partnerships?

Naoki Okamura: With our focus area approach, we start with the biology of a given condition, identify the best modality or technology to address it, and then determine the patient population that can benefit most from our approach, taking into account unmet medical need.

We view this strategy as a way to build a sustainable, expandable drug discovery approach to develop new platforms, leverage expertise and create innovative products. For example, our Genetic Regulation Primary Focus seeks to develop adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based medicines that can be delivered through gene replacement or gene regulation, creating the potential for a portfolio of innovative gene therapies across multiple organs and diseases.

While late-stage partnerships will always be part of our strategy, in many cases we’re no longer waiting for proof of concept. We’re partnering on technology platforms at an earlier stage, with the goal of yielding multiple products from a single platform.

Can you describe your role, in your capacity as chief strategy officer, in creating the approach to partnerships?

When I became chief strategy officer in 2018, Astellas was at a crossroads. We successfully specialized in a small number of therapeutic areas, but this approach had limitations, especially given new scientific advances related to regenerative medicine, gene therapy and other areas where focusing on a specific biology or modality could yield treatments across multiple disease states. Instead, we’ve positioned the company as a cutting-edge, value-driven life science innovator. We are pursuing a new approach focused on transformative therapies and new technologies.

My background is in business development, and I viewed this shift as a natural opportunity to build on our previous success in partnering. We identified the areas where we have the greatest opportunity to develop breakthrough science. Each of these primary focuses is a puzzle where we work to find and assemble the pieces, from both Astellas and external partners. A good example is gene therapy, a pioneering field that is too complex to be navigated by one company alone. In 2020 we acquired Audentes Therapeutics, which had a deep pipeline of AAV-based gene therapy assets. Then in December 2021, we forged a research collaboration with Dyno Therapeutics with the goal of creating next-generation AAV capsids.

What trends in pharmaceutical partnerships do you anticipate in the year ahead?

Pharmaceutical companies are moving toward different kinds of partnerships. For example, with the growth of targeted therapies, companion diagnostics companies are logical partners. However, they typically have a multi-partner, non-exclusive business model that’s completely different from that of the pharmaceutical industry. These partnerships are pushing the pharma industry to think differently and work faster.

Another interesting dynamic with a significant impact on alliances is the bear market for startups. With dwindling available capital, more biotech startups will be looking to partnerships and M&A instead of venture capital or IPOs, and the market will bring their valuations down to something that is reasonably attractive for partnerships.

Why do you believe diverse collaborations are emerging, and in what way are these types of partnerships key to advancing new drugs?

Partnership is critical for innovation. Science is changing too fast for most pharmaceutical companies to have all the capabilities they need to adopt new technology platforms. With the remarkable breadth of advances in science, external partnerships are the best way to quickly acquire or adopt the necessary variety of drug development technology and know-how including modality/technology and biology, as well as commercial capabilities.

This insight is important not only for drug development, but also non-pharmaceutical products. Our non-pharmaceutical pipeline — what we call our Rx+ business — combines our in-house expertise with cutting-edge technology in different fields. Examples include ASP5354, an investigational optical imaging agent that leverages our knowledge of genitourinary medicine, and MYHOLTER II, a program that uses AI to analyze ECG data that we recently launched with M. Heart. 

Can you talk about key steps to ensure more effective navigation of strategic partnerships and alliance dynamics?

It’s important to ensure partnerships are a win-win throughout the long journey of collaboration. It’s more than buying an asset and moving on. True value will require long-term effort and patience. You must be thoughtful and careful to capture the partner’s strategic intent, not just your own.

We consider the gold standard of high-performing alliances to be establishing a strategic alignment that allows the combined team to focus entirely on one goal — an innovative product that will bring value to patients — while still meeting the individual needs of each company.

We believe there are three keys to achieving that gold standard. First, the right start is important. Get alignment on a ‘North Star’ and goals early. Understand the culture of your partner, particularly as it relates to decision-making.

Second, use professional alliance management — senior-level people with a broad range of experience who can proactively manage risk and actively pursue the strategic intent of the alliance. Our professional alliance managers are the eyes and the ears of everything that’s going on across that alliance.

Third, create an alliance mindset throughout each organization. From the CEO down, our executive champions meet on a routine basis with their counterparts at the other company to proactively align on our path forward.