GE Healthcare, Takeda Enter Liver Disease R&D Alliance

GE Healthcare and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. have entered an R&D alliance to develop drugs as well as new diagnostic technologies targeting liver disease. GE will provide its diagnostic imaging technology to generate a liver stiffness map as part of Takeda’s research and development for liver diseases.
 
Liver disease has almost no visible symptoms, and its progress is characterized by a hardening of the tissues due to fibrosis. Over the past couple of decades, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) have become the number one cause of liver disease in developed countries. Currently, the diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis is most commonly conducted by a liver biopsy. Using GE Healthcare’s diagnostic technology will help contribute to Takeda’s development efforts.
 
“It gives me great pleasure to have been able to build this alliance with GE Healthcare to develop therapeutic drugs to treat liver diseases,” said Tadataka Yamada, chief medical and scientific officer at Takeda. “This alliance will assist efforts to develop new therapeutic options that ease the burden on the patient. Moving forward, we will continue to put the patient first and incorporate a wide range of innovations into the field of drug discovery.”
 
“It is extremely gratifying to me that, through this collaboration, our technologies will be of use in the development of treatments for the liver diseases that are of particular importance not just in Asia, but worldwide,” said Akihiko Kumagai, chairman of GE Healthcare Japan with overall responsibility for liver disease programs. “We have been focusing efforts on developing technologies to help provide solutions for liver cancer. As one location in our global research and development network, Japan, whose strategy is to create solutions for an aging population, has been a driving force behind these efforts. Innovations by GE will continue to contribute to the health of people all around the world.”