Tokyo: Japan's Daiichi Sankyo Company Limited has announced details of the application for its Take a New Challenge for Drug Discovery (TaNeDS) Europe 2015/2016, a collaborative drug discovery initiative for universities and research institutes in Europe.

The TaNeDS program was launched in Japan in 2011 to help discover new lines of research through open innovation. From 2013 it expanded abroad, opening up to researchers in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, becoming known as the TaNeDS Global Program, and in 2014, it expanded further across Europe to include all EU member countries.

This year the program was renamed 'TaNeDS Europe', and the aim of this program is realizing Daiichi Sankyo's corporate slogan of 'Passion for Innovation, Compassion for Patients' through increasing collaborative opportunities with researchers in Europe.

U3 Pharma GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Daiichi Sankyo in Germany, is also participating in the program in order to nurture drug discovery for the next generation.