Takeda launches drug discovery biotech

Takeda has joined forces with three US academic institutions to launch a drug discovery company whose mission is to speed the development of innovative therapies.

New-York-based biotech Bridge Medicines will provide a fully-funded path from concept to drug candidate, eschewing time-consuming searches for investors and product licensers that can often bring a halt to a drug's development.

It builds on work from the Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute (Tri-I TDI) - a partnership created in 2013 by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University and Weill Cornell Medicine.

Tri-I TDI currently has 50 early-stage research drug discovery projects underway and these will also benefit from Bridge Medicines' financial, operational and managerial support.

Dr Michael Foley, Sanders director of the Tri-I TDI, said: “The launch of Bridge Medicines is a truly exciting development in New York's biotechnology space.

“We're tapping into the distinguished talent at Sloan Kettering, Rockefeller and Weill Cornell Medicine and offering entrepreneurs access to support what's next in biopharmaceuticals.

“Bridge Medicines will enable us to advance promising projects farther down the development pipeline, providing new therapies to patients as quickly as possible.”

The collaboration between Takeda and the Tri-I TDI enables funding of potentially transformational but risky research projects thanks to the partnership's group model, which has the support of healthcare investment firms Bay City Capital and Deerfield Management.

Dr Foley added: “Bridge Medicines' mission is to increase the odds of successfully developing novel therapeutics to meet the needs of patients while simultaneously helping to build a vibrant biotechnology sector in New York City.”