Arius Research, Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. have entered into a three-year, multi-product collaboration using Arius’ FunctionFIRST Platform to discover treatments for human disease. Under the terms of the agreement, Arius will receive an upfront technology access fee of $2 million, consisting of $1 million each in cash and equity investment respectively, and research funding for the three years. Arius will also be entitled to milestone payments based on clinical progress plus royalties on net sales for any licensed product. Takeda will assume the responsibility and costs of development and commercialization while Arius will have an option to co-develop any product. Further financial terms were not disclosed.

“Takeda has committed extensive scientific and development resources to antibodies for cancer and we are excited by the opportunity to work together to bring our products forward,” said Dr. David Young, president of Arius Research. “A discovery partnership with Takeda will help us exploit our technology and achieve secure research funding and support from a premier pharmaceutical company.”

“We expect that the unique approach of Arius, which is to select the functional antibodies first, will lead to an improved success ratio of developing therapeutic antibodies for a variety of cancers,” said Shigenori Ohkawa, Ph.D., general manager of pharmaceutical research division of Takeda. “We believe that this joint research collaboration with Arius will contribute to enhancing our cancer franchise as one of our core therapeutic areas for future growth.”