Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. has renewed its partnership with the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) to fund collective drug research and has invested an additional (CAD) $7.5 million, on top of its initial investment of (CAD) $5 million in 2012.

SGC is an open-source collaboration of more than 200 scientists from academia and industry working on human biology and early-stage drug research, the results of which are available to the scientific community. The SGC is based at the University of Toronto, operating from the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto, and at the Universities of Campinas (Brazil), North Carolina (Chapel Hill , U.S.) and Oxford (UK). One of the areas in which SGC works is identifying new targets for drug discovery.

“Takeda is pleased to expand its investment in the Structural Genomics Consortium as a testament both to the excellent work being done by all the scientists involved and the collaborative nature of this basic research,” said Tetsuyuki Maruyama, general manager and head of the Pharmaceutical Research Division, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. and member of the board of SGC.

“The impact of our open collaborative model is clearly demonstrated through renewed investments such as this one from Takeda,” said Aled Edwards, chief executive of SGC. “Scientists within our industry partners, including Takeda, appreciate the value of being able to collaborate openly with members of the Ontario scientific and clinical ecosystems. Together we expect to make many fundamental discoveries that advance the discovery of new medicines.”