Takeda Pharmaceutical has announced a collaboration with Stanford University to form the Stanford Alliance for Innovative Medicines (Stanford AIM), which will help transform novel Stanford research into next-generation treatments for diseases. Through this unique collaboration, Takeda and Stanford will identify projects on the path to therapeutic discoveries and accelerate the process of bringing these drugs to market to serve patients with unmet needs.

Stanford AIM will leverage the collective knowledge and experience of Stanford and Takeda scientists in order to propel health discoveries through therapeutic development. By encouraging academic and industry scientists to work more closely together, the partnership aims to expedite promising new medicines that represent real and meaningful benefits for patients.

“Takeda’s alliance with Stanford demonstrates our commitment to advancing medicines as quickly and efficiently as possible—from drug discovery to development and ultimately to patients,” said Juan Harrison, Vice President, Head of Strategic Academic Alliances, Center for External Innovation, Takeda. “We look forward to combining the intellectual capital of Takeda and Stanford scientists, motivating both to come together as peers, in order to deliver medicines that represent real and meaningful benefits for patients.”

The partners expect to begin taking proposals from Stanford lab teams in October, which will include objectives against which to measure progress and success during key phases of research. Together, Takeda and Stanford will identify the most promising novel, innovative projects. Upon project selection, Takeda will apply its best-in-class capabilities—including scientific and clinical research and operations—to develop the pathway or platform technology.

This type of collaboration advances the validation of projects born at Stanford and improves the potential for discoveries to be developed and licensed, while exposing Takeda researchers to the latest biological discoveries and innovative chemical platforms from a leading research university. The three-year term of the collaboration will support four to eight projects running concurrently at a given time.