Advinus, Takeda Pharma initiate drug discovery

Advinus Therapeutics Ltd (Advinus)and Japanese firm Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd (Takeda) jointly announced today that they have entered into an agreement to initiate a three-year drug discovery collaboration.

The collaboration is focused on novel targets for major therapeutic areas including inflammation, CNS, and metabolic diseases. In this collaboration, Advinus is responsible for leading the programs to create optimal investigational new drug (IND) ready compounds for pre-defined targets, a company statement said here.

Advinus is a research-based pharmaceutical company, which creates long-term value through internal and collaborative innovative drug discovery and is building on a strong track record of efficient solutions to address some of the key challenges facing biopharmaceutical industry's R&D productivity, the release said.

Advinus' proprietary pipeline demonstrates its ability to create a timely and sustainable flow of IND candidates. The multi-year collaboration will be built upon this foundation, with the goal to develop INDs for both pre-existing and novel targets.

Under the terms of the agreement, Takeda will receive worldwide commercial rights to drug candidates emerging from this alliance. Advinus will receive guaranteed research funding of USD 36 million over the term of the collaboration, USD9 million in milestones leading to candidate selection, and
is eligible to receive future clinical and regulatory milestone payments of up to USD 45 million per product, plus royalties on product sales worldwide.

"Collaboration with Advinus is one of our initiatives to enhance our research productivity," said Paul Chapman, General Manager of the Pharmaceutical Research Division of Takeda.

"Takeda and Advinus teams together will advance globally networked innovation for addressing key pharma R&D issue - R&D productivity for better return on R&D investments," Advinus CEO Rashmi Barbhaiya said.