Asahi Kasei Pharma, subsidiary of diversified Japanese multinational company Asahi Kasei, is calling for new proposals for drug development research as part of its efforts for open innovation to promote pharmaceutical research and development through cooperation with universities, research institutes and enterprises around the world.
Asahi Kasei Pharma established its Open Innovation Department in October 2016 with the mission to further strengthen and enhance global licensing and alliance-building activities and has since funded around 5 proposals per year on average with a total of over 20 funded proposals for state-of-the-art pharmaceutical drug developments as well as collected a wealth of creative new ideas. The Open Innovation team is seeking to fund innovative proposals from researchers around the world for up to $200,000 per year, per project for this upcoming round in 2023. Asahi Kasei Pharma will then pursue joint research opportunities with the drug discovery researchers together with their parent institutions in hopes to create new innovative drugs for diseases that currently have unmet needs or pioneer new platform technologies for drug discovery.
Asahi Kasei Pharma has demonstrated a successful track record in developing new drugs in the realms of autoimmune, renal, neurological, and bone disease, so the organisation can provide the greatest contribution from correlating research areas and subjects.
"Asahi Kasei Pharma believes that nobody should have to give up what they would like to do because of illness," said Osamu Matsuzaki, primary executive officer and head of R&D and Business Development at Asahi Kasei Pharma. “We believe great science comes from working together, and we are excited for the opportunity to accomplish this mission with researchers all over the world.”
Open Innovation works to establish research collaborations related to innovative drug targets and candidate drug compounds up to the preclinical stage as well as advanced drug discovery technologies. Advancements in exploring a new mechanism of action for treating refractory autoimmune disease is one of the most promising outcomes of the research so far, with many more on the horizon. Asahi Kasei believes that these continued efforts to advance drug discovery and research technology will further contribute to life and living for people around the world.