Takeda joins Structural Genomics Consortium

Takeda has become a member of the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) in order to support innovative pharmaceutical research across the world.

The healthcare firm will support the not-for-profit organisation – which is based at the Universities of Toronto and Oxford – in funding collective drug research and bringing new medicines to market more rapidly.

Six of the world's leading pharmaceutical businesses are now contributing to this project, up from three over the previous four years, while the amount of available funding has jumped to $50 million (31.5 million pounds).

More than 200 scientists are involved in the scheme, which will provide early-stage research freely available to the wider community with no patent restrictions.

Paul Chapman, general manager for the pharmaceutical research division at Takeda, said: "We … firmly believe that important new medicines will be discovered in industry and vital scientific knowledge will be gained in academia through this open innovation."

Last week, the company announced the establishment of a new global headquarters structure, in order to better align with its expanding international profile.