Harvard University and Kyowa Kirin Co, Ltd have announced that they have entered into a strategic research alliance. The 5-year alliance, established by Harvard’s Office of Technology Development (OTD), aims to fuel scientific collaboration among academic and industry researchers to accelerate discovery and early-stage innovation in translational biomedical science.

Kyowa Kirin is a Japan-based global specialty pharmaceutical company with drug discovery and commercialisation capabilities focused in core therapeutic areas of nephrology, oncology, immunology and allergy, and the central nervous system. By creating opportunities for formal scientific collaboration, the alliance will leverage industry insight and drug development expertise to advance biomedical innovations developed in Harvard labs toward the clinical development of important new therapies.

Vivian Berlin, Managing Director, Strategic Partnerships, Harvard OTD, said, “By building collaborative scientific relationships around the world, like this alliance with Kyowa Kirin, we are crafting an environment where industry leadership, resources, and new scientific perspectives may help to validate and develop those innovations toward life-changing treatments for the benefit of patients.”

“I am very pleased that Kyowa Kirin will have the opportunity to work and collaborate with the faculty at one of the world’s leading institutions to advance drug discovery and biomedical science,” said Yoshifumi Torii, Executive Officer, Vice President, Head, R&D Division, Kyowa Kirin. “One of our most important R&D strategies is to pursue external opportunities to generate scientific innovative value through strategic collaborations with industry and academia. I’m confident that this alliance will lead us toward novel and promising therapies for patients in the future.”

Projects under the alliance will be initiated by Harvard’s leading life-science faculty through a proposal process. Projects selected for funding and scientific collaboration will be identified by a Joint Steering Committee, comprising membership from both Harvard and Kyowa Kirin.

Harvard OTD’s long-running alliance programme creates multi-year, collaborative relationships between the university and corporate partners. These alliances support faculty-initiated research projects that can advance early-stage discoveries and rapidly drive innovation in a broad area of science. In establishing discussions with Kyowa Kirin that led to the creation of this research alliance, OTD was assisted by Gemseki, Inc, a subsidiary of Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL), a preclinical CRO in Japan.