Evozyne LLC, a privately held molecular engineering technology company founded by life science company Paragon Biosciences, announced on Monday that it has signed a strategic collaboration and license agreement with Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited.

According to the contract, Evozyne's evolution-based protein design technology is to be used to research and develop proteins that could be applied to next generation gene therapies for genetic disorders within the inborn errors of metabolism and lysosomal storage disease areas of research. The partnership will result in Evozyne being eligible to receive an upfront payment and additional research, development and regulatory milestone payments; and royalties on sales of any commercial products.

Rama Ranganathan, MD, PhD, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Evozyne, said, 'People living with inborn errors of metabolism diseases have profound deficiencies in enzyme levels or lack of enzyme activity that lead to the build-up of toxic materials in the body. For years, researchers have been working to convert existing cells to express the missing enzyme. We now have the ability to create new enzymes that could enable more effective gene therapy approaches that may have a greater impact on patients with these disorders.'