The FINANCIAL — Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and MEDIPAL HOLDINGS CORPORATION have agreed to jointly invest a total of 10 billion yen to establish a new company, which will be named SCOHIA PHARMA, Inc..
Following its launch within Takeda’s Shonan Research Center, SCOHIA PHARMA will sign a license agreement with Takeda for eight of Takeda’s renal, metabolic and cardiovascular research and development projects,* with the goal of initiating operations on April 1, 2017. Takeda researchers with a high level of expertise in and knowledge of these therapeutic areas will be involved in SCOHIA PHARMA’s activities. SCOHIA PHARMA, as a biotech venture that will have both substantial research and development resources and be nimble enough to make decisions quickly, will strive to improve patient quality of life by providing patients and healthcare professionals with new therapeutic medications for renal, metabolic, and cardiovascular diseases, according to Takeda.
Mikihide Katsumata, President and COO at INCJ, said “When US and European pharmaceutical companies execute an essential strategic shift, spin-off biotech ventures are formed on a constant basis, which consequently provides greater flexibility in corporate resources including product development, drug discovery and human resources. SCOHIA PHARMA will be born as a remarkably large-scale biotechventure with proven development pipelines, and I anticipate that its success will contribute not only to the delivery of new therapeutic medications but also to the establishment of an entire new ecosystem in the Japanese pharmaceutical industry and biotech field.”
Andy Plump, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer at Takeda, said “Takeda has been transforming its research and development organization in order to deliver innovative new medicines for patients. The establishment of SCOHIA PHARMA represents not only a business model that will allow a high level of expertise to be brought to bear over an extended period of time in the renal, metabolic, and cardiovascular therapeutic areas, but is also an early step in the creation of a research park that will allow Takeda’s Shonan Research Center to gather a wide variety of healthcare knowledge in one location. I believe that as a drug discovery venture company with its origin in Japan, SCOHIA PHARMA will be able to deliver new value to patients.”
MEDIPAL HD Managing Director Toshihide Yoda said that “MEDIPAL, which plays a core role in the domestic distribution activities of Takeda, will through its investment in SCOHIA PHARMA contribute to society by providing added value to the supply chain from the drug discovery stage through the distribution stage, thereby guaranteeing ‘the stable supply of pharmaceuticals.’’’
Yoichi Okumura, who has been appointed as the CEO of SCOHIA PHARMA, said that “SCOHIA PHARMA will allow world-class scientists to realize their full potential, and the creative forces that will be generated as a result will ensure that suffering patients will have access to new treatment options. SCOHIA PHARMA will show a new business model to the Japanese business industry how large domestic pharmaceutical companies successfully spin off a venture company.”
Discussion about this post