Daiichi Sankyo, Virtici and Celdara Medical announce collaboration to identify and progress high potential therapeutics

Daiichi Sankyo, Co., Ltd., Virtici, LLC and Celdara Medical, LLC announced today that they have entered into a collaboration to jointly investigate novel therapeutic candidates and thereby further strengthen the Daiichi Sankyo developmental pipeline across multiple therapeutic areas.

Virtici and Celdara Medical are affiliated, independent companies that build and develop pipelines of high potential therapeutic assets. The collaboration is intended to accelerate the time from discovery to development with the potential to deliver first-in-class treatments that address significant unmet medical needs. Funding is channeled into the most promising targets to drive early research before moving into larger scale clinical development.

“This collaboration strengthens our ability to access potential breakthrough innovation, and demonstrates our continued commitment to working with partners at the forefront of science,” said Mahmoud Ghazzi, M.D., Ph.D., Global Head of Development, Daiichi Sankyo, Co. Ltd. “By augmenting in-house research and other development avenues, these focused, exclusive, indication-targeted partnerships can accelerate medical innovations into the clinic and ultimately to patients.”

“We are extremely pleased to be working with Daiichi Sankyo,” said Neil Fanger, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Virtici. “Using our unique model, infrastructure and capabilities, we can help further advance Daiichi Sankyo’s strong track record of innovative drug development. This collaboration leverages the complementary capabilities and synergies between our firms.”

“This alliance represents a new partnership paradigm for Virtici and Celdara Medical while validating our underlying development model. Daiichi Sankyo’s impressive capabilities, global reach, and open, collaborative culture make them ideal partners,” said Jake Reder, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Celdara Medical. “The team at Celdara Medical is excited to work hand-in-hand with Daiichi Sankyo on some of the most challenging problems in human health.”