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(RTTNews) - Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (TAK), Astellas Pharma Inc. (ALPMY), and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. announced Monday that they have signed a master agreement to establish a joint venture company.

The new JV will be for the incubation of early drug discovery programs, primarily originating from Japan and toward the creation of innovative therapeutics.

The JV is expected to be established in mid-2024, and it's capital would be around 600 million yen, including capital reserve.

Both Takeda and Astellas will hold 33.4% each in the JV, while SMBC will hold 33.2%.

The name of the new company is yet to be determined. It's CEO will be Toshio Fujimoto, and located at Shonan Health Innovation Park in Kanagawa, Japan.

Fujimoto will concurrently serve as President and Representative Director of the iPark Institute Co., Ltd.

The joint venture company will focus on advancing innovative drug discovery programs; Incubating globally competitive drug discovery technology and fostering entrepreneurship; as well as unleashing the potential of drug discovery ecosystem in Japan through the creation of high caliber start-up companies.

Further, Takeda and Astellas will provide support to the joint venture company, aiming to accelerate open innovation in early-stage drug discovery, and toward the creation of start-up companies for the benefit of society.

The three companies will further discuss the details of the agreement to complete the inception of the joint venture company and commence operations.

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