Deals report: Two Japanese pharmas set up local biotech incubator

The Japanese biotech ecosystem got a boost Monday when a pair of pharmas and a bank based in the country created a joint venture to incubate early discovery projects and help create start-up companies.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4502; NYSE:TAK) and Astellas Pharma Inc. (Tokyo:4503) joined with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (Tokyo:8316) to establish the as-yet-unnamed JV, which is to be based in Fujisawa. A former Takeda research facility in that city became Shonan Health Innovation Park in 2018; the site has housed more than 150 companies...