Takeda inks academic alliance for obesity and schizophrenia research
This article was originally published in Scrip
Takeda is continuing to pursue open innovation alliances to strengthen its R&D pipeline, this time linking up with Kyoto University in Japan to discover novel drugs acting on the CNS for the treatment of obesity and schizophrenia.
The five-year alliance aims to identify novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers through basic research, and to progress candidates into clinical trials. The "TK Project" will also tap into data from the university hospital and its international network.
Kyoto, one of the leading national universities in Japan, has set up a medical innovation centre within its graduate school of medicine, which is pursuing the development of discovery technology and collaborative research in the areas of drugs and medical devices. A major goal of the initiative is to foster public-private partnerships and joint R&D.
Takeda recently joined forces with two US medical institutes to discover and develop novel treatments for obesity, as part of its strategic interest in lifestyle and metabolic disorders (scripintelligence.com, 4 January 2011).