TOKYO, Oct. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Astellas Pharma
Inc. (Tokyo: 4503, President &
CEO: Yoshihiko Hatanaka, "Astellas")
announced today a research collaboration with an investigator at
Harvard Medical School ("Harvard"), located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, focused on
discovering the pathologic mechanism for retinitis pigmentosa and
identification of new therapeutic targets. Astellas and
Harvard will work with the aim to
provide a new treatment option with a view of a gene therapy, to
retinitis pigmentosa patients who have difficulty maintaining good
vision.
Retinitis pigmentosa is a retinal degenerative disease caused by
genetic mutations and characterized by loss of peripheral and night
vision, followed by loss of color vision and complete blindness.
The pathogenesis of the retinal degeneration is still not fully
understood and an effective treatment has yet to be
established.
This collaborative research will be led by Constance L. Cepko, Ph. D., Professor of
Genetics and of Ophthalmology at Harvard, who is also an investigator of the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute, and is a world-renowned authority on
ophthalmology and gene therapy. Using adeno-associated virus
vectors, genes that prolong vision in those who inherit retinitis
pigmentosa will be identified and verified. Astellas will support
the collaboration for up to three years. If the collaboration is
successful in identifying genes that lead to promising treatment
options for patients, Astellas will conduct further drug discovery
on such promising candidates, and subsequent development and
commercialization under an exclusive license from Harvard.
"For the purpose of enhancing the ability to generate new drugs,
Astellas is looking for challenges in new therapeutic areas and
novel technology platforms as well as new drug discovery
opportunities that satisfy unmet medical needs through
collaboration with external partners. This collaboration with
Professor Cepko at Harvard is a part of
this strategy. It is our hope that this collaboration to advance
drug discovery will bring light to patients who struggle with
retinitis pigmentosa," said Kenji
Yasukawa, Ph. D., Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy
Officer, Astellas.
Dr. Cepko had the following to say: "We are hopeful that some of
our candidates will preserve the color and daylight vision of RP
patients, regardless of the disease gene in their family. These
treatments may also be effective in people that have other types of
ocular disease, such as age-related macular degeneration, or
glaucoma."
This partnership has been led by Innovation Management ("AIM"),
Astellas.
About AIM
Innovation Management ("AIM") was a new division established in
October 2013 in order to enhance and
accelerate the process of screening and acquiring external
opportunities to strengthen innovation at the preclinical
development stage. AIM oversees strategic alliance activities with
external partners and is responsible for a series of activities
aimed at acquiring external innovation opportunities in the
preclinical development stage, such as strategy planning,
screening, scientific assessment and alliance negotiations, so that
strategic external business alliances can be strategically and
systematically performed.
About Astellas
Astellas Pharma Inc., located in Tokyo, Japan, is a pharmaceutical company
dedicated to improving the health of people around the world
through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceuticals.
Astellas has approximately 18,000 employees worldwide. The
organization is committed to becoming a global category leader in
Urology, Immunology (including Transplantation) and Infectious
diseases, Oncology, Neuroscience and Diabetes Mellitus (DM)
Complications and Kidney diseases. For more information on Astellas
Pharma Inc., please visit the company website at
www.astellas.com/en.
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SOURCE Astellas Pharma Inc.
