Public-private partnership Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) partnered healthcare companies Takeda Pharmaceutical and Medipal Holdings on Tuesday to launch Japan-based biotech startup Scohia Pharma.
The partners are set to inject a combined ¥10bn ($87m) in Scohia, which has been spun out of Takeda’s Shonan Research Center, and which will formally begin operations on April 1.
Scohia will license eight research and development projects from Takeda, ranging from discovery and preclinical candidates to those at phase 2 stage, covering renal, metabolic and cardiovascular conditions such as diabetes and obesity.
Several unnamed researchers from Takeda with expertise in Scohia’s three targeted areas will provide their expertise to the spinout. Yoichi Okumura, general manager for intellectual property at Takeda, has been appointed chief executive of the spinout.
Okumura said: “Scohia Pharma will allow world-class scientists to realise 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.”
Mikihide Katsumata, INCJ’s chief operating officer, added: “When US and European pharmaceutical companies execute an essential strategic shift, spinout 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 biotech venture 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.”
– The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global Government Venturing