Takeda and Advinus initiate multi-year Drug Discovery Collaboration

Osaka, Japan, and Bangalore, India, October 3, 2012 – Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda) and Advinus Therapeutics Ltd. (Advinus) jointly announced today that they have entered into an agreement to initiate a three-year discovery collaboration focused on novel targets for major therapeutic areas, including Inflammation, CNS, and Metabolic diseases. In this collaboration, Advinus is responsible for leading the programs to create optimal IND ready compounds for pre-defined targets.

Advinus is a research-based pharmaceutical company, which creates long-term value through internal and collaborative innovative Drug Discovery, and is building on a strong track record of efficient solutions to address some of the key challenges facing biopharmaceutical industry’s R&D productivity. Advinus’ proprietary pipeline demonstrates its ability to create a timely and sustainable flow of IND candidates. The multi-year collaboration will be built upon this foundation, with the goal to develop INDs for both pre-existing and novel targets.

Under the terms of the agreement, Takeda will receive worldwide commercial rights to drug candidates emerging from this alliance. Advinus will receive guaranteed research funding of $36 million over the term of the collaboration, $9 million in milestones leading to candidate selection, and is eligible to receive future clinical and regulatory milestone payments of up to $45 million per product, plus royalties on product sales worldwide.

“Collaboration with Advinus is one of our initiatives to enhance our research productivity,” said Dr. Paul Chapman, General Manager of the Pharmaceutical Research Division of Takeda. “We are very excited to partner with Advinus as they have innovative approaches to efficiently generate INDs that will further strengthen Takeda’s drug discovery capabilities, while also enhancing our pipeline.”

“Advinus team is delighted that its biggest ever collaboration has been made possible by Takeda’s visionary leadership, and their confidence in the founding principles that aim to create these new R&D opportunities. Takeda and Advinus teams together will advance globally networked innovation for addressing key Pharma R&D issue – R&D productivity for better return on R&D investments,” added Dr. Rashmi Barbhaiya, Chief Executive Officer of Advinus.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited
Located in Osaka, Japan, Takeda is a research-based global company with its main focus on pharmaceuticals. As the largest pharmaceutical company in Japan and one of the global leaders of the industry, Takeda is committed to strive towards better health for patients worldwide through leading innovation in medicine. Additional information about Takeda is available through its corporate website, www.takeda.com.

About Advinus Therapeutics
Advinus Therapeutics is a privately held research-based pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of proprietary new medicines for metabolic and inflammatory diseases. The company has been promoted by the TATA group, India’s largest and most respected business house and led by executives with extensive international experience in pharmaceutical R&D. Advinus is the first of its kind in India to offer end to end pre-clinical and early clinical development services to the global pharmaceutical and biotech industry while creating long term value through internal and collaborative drug discovery. The Discovery unit located in Pune is fully integrated from hit to preclinical candidate. Advinus Development Center in Bangalore offers an integrated service platform for process chemistry, DMPK, clinical pharmacology, safety assessment, analytical R&D, bioanalytical and pre-formulation development. For company information, visit Advinus at www.advinus.com