Takeda agrees schizophrenia research partnership

Takeda is to work together with the recently-formed drug discovery firm Envoy Therapeutics on joint research into new treatments for schizophrenia.

The two companies have signed a three-year research alliance utilising Envoy's bacTRAP technology, which provides a new means of labelling and extracting the protein-making components of specified cell types.

It will be used to isolate proteins expressed by schizophrenia-affected brain cells, allowing the research partners to conduct studies into therapeutic modulation methods.

The purpose of this alliance – which will see Takeda pay $3 million (1.9 million pounds) upfront as well as providing research funding – is to create drugs with better safety and efficacy performance than current therapies.

Shigenori Ohkawa, executive vice-president and chief scientific officer of Takeda, said: "Using our research sites in the UK, Singapore and Japan, this collaboration with Envoy offers the potential for Takeda to develop entirely new classes of therapeutics."

Earlier this month, Takeda announced that Bruno Angelici has become the newest member of its global advisory board.