London-Japan Partnership to Target Neurodegenerative Diseases

A new London-Japan partnership to understand why devastating neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s or Motor Neurone Disease develop and how they can be disrupted, has been announced by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, during a trade mission to Japan in October. He made the announcement at a BioJapan, a leading Asian biotechnology event, where MedCity also launched a major new drive to promote cell therapy collaborations between the UK and Japan, in partnership with London & Partners and the GREAT Britain campaign.

The collaboration between Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Japan’s largest pharmaceutical company and UCL (University College London), one of the world’s top ranked universities, will focus on identifying and understanding the role genes and genetic mutations play in these diseases so that they can be targeted with more effective new treatments.

Takeda and UCL scientists will work side by side across a range of pre-clinical drug discovery areas, including bioinformatics, molecular biology and pharmacology. The collaboration has also received funding support from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre.

Dr. Tetsuyuki Maruyama, General Manager of Takeda's Pharmaceutical Research Division, said: "At Takeda, we work with partners to accelerate innovation. We are looking forward to collaborating with UCL’s world-class researchers. This cooperation will help us to identify and validate novel therapeutic pathways in central nervous system diseases, which is one of Takeda’s core therapeutic areas – ultimately leading to new treatments for patients suffering from neurodegenerative disorders.”

UCL’s agreement with Takeda complements its alliance with Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai, launched three years ago to develop new ways of treating neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

UCL President & Provost Professor Michael Arthur said: “Our alliance with Eisai was a crucial step in UCL’s drive to develop new therapies for neurodegeneration. This drive is mirrored in other fields of research and is exemplified by the collaborative nature of UCL’s research, particularly in partnering with industry. This partnership between UCL and Takeda is a very exciting development. UCL has a long and successful track record of working with companies in Japan and we are keen to build on this further across all areas of research.”