Takeda, Astellas Pharma and Sumitomo Mitsui to establish joint venture company

Takeda (TAK), Astellas Pharma (ALPMY), and Sumitomo Mitsui (SMFG) announced that the three companies signed a master agreement on April 22 to establish a joint venture company. The new company will be dedicated to the incubation of early drug discovery programs, primarily originating from Japan and toward the creation of innovative therapeutics. In addition to establishing the joint venture company, Takeda and Astellas will provide support to the joint venture company leveraging their expertise gained from global drug discovery research and development, aiming to accelerate open innovation in early-stage drug discovery, and toward the creation of start-up companies for the benefit of society. The joint venture company plans to begin incubation activities by collaboratively working with academia, pharmaceutical companies, and start-up companies across Japan to enable access to potentially transformative early drug discovery programs. The three companies will further discuss the details of the agreement to complete the inception of the joint venture company and commence operations, aiming for a swift launch of the new incubation activities.