Takeda to invest $25m in drug discovery firm BioMotiv

In addition, the companies have formed a partnership that will leverage the strengths of both organizations to identify and develop new drugs.

The five-year investment gives Takeda the right to make the first offer on any therapies BioMotiv develops related to heart disease, diabetes and other so-called cardiometabolic conditions, as well as any disease involving inflammation and the immune system.

The $250m Harrington Project for Discovery & Development was launched in 2012, and this national initiative includes the not-for-profit Harrington Discovery Institute and BioMotiv, a for-profit therapeutic accelerator.

The project is designed to identify, fund and rapidly advance the development of medical breakthroughs from the most innovative and respected research institutions, as well as disease foundations, throughout the US.

BioMotiv chief executive officer Baiju Shah said this strategic relationship with Takeda provides for a seamless continuum of expertise to aggressively advance physician- scientist derived therapeutic innovations through proof of concept and into clinical development and eventual commercialization.

"If we truly want to deliver medical breakthroughs to patients for whom therapeutic options are currently limited, or absent, it is vital to forge these close relationships among innovators, expert resources and pharmaceutical companies at the earliest opportunity," Shah said.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Research Division general manager Tetsuyuki Maruyama said, "Participation in the Harrington Project offers an important opportunity to stay closely connected to physician-patient dialog, and work with a broader community of individuals committed to truly impactful medical innovation."