Sanofi teams with University of Tokyo for drug discovery
Under the agreement, Sanofi’s Japan operation in Tokyo - Sanofi K.K.- will have the access to University's research mapping system, which provides details of each TR-related research project include early and unpublished data.
The French drugmaker expects the agreement to encourage close communications between researchers in the university and the company to promote the industry-academia partnership through combining TR’s discovery of drug targets and disease mechanism with its own technologies as well as rich research resources to develop novel drugs for the global market.
“The research areas that are in Sanofi’s interest include oncology, diabetes, vaccines and rare diseases” a Sanofi K.K spokesperson told Biopharma-reporter.
She said right now there is no specific project for the collaboration and the research is not limited to biomedicine or chemical drugs. It is also not disclosed which party will fund the research if a project is selected.
In a statement, Yuji Sato, head of R&D at Sanofi K.K., said the company is actively pushing open innovation and engages itself in turning revolutionary research into effective medicines.
Apparently Sanofi is not the only one having such a strategy. Other companies in Japan working with TR for the similar purpose include Novartis, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Novo Nordisk and Takeda
