Takeda links with Cerevance to advance new GI treatments

Cerevance, a UK-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company advancing new medicines for brain diseases, has formed a multi-year research alliance with Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical (TYO: 4502) to identify novel target proteins expressed in the central nervous system and to develop new therapies against them for certain gastrointestinal (GI) disorders.

In partnership with Lightstone Ventures, Takeda launched Cerevance in December 2016, with $35 million of funding. The move followed Takeda’s decision to close its Cambridge, UK, research operation. The new company retained former president and chief scientific office Mark Carlton to head the firm, as well as a bunch of researchers.

Scientists from the companies will select, confirm and validate targets from rich gene expression data sets generated by Cerevance’s NETSseq technology, which sorts and profiles specific neuronal and glial cell types in post-mortem human central nervous system tissue at unparalleled depth.