Beacon Discovery, a world leader in all facets of GPCR-focused drug discovery, has announced the formation of a multi-year drug discovery collaboration with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited focused on a number of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) that play an important role in the pathology of gastrointestinal disorders.

Through the collaboration, Beacon will leverage its GPCR drug discovery expertise to identify drug candidates for a range of GI diseases with significant unmet medical need.  “This collaboration represents another exciting milestone in the development of key strategic alliances for Beacon”, said Sunny Al-Shamma, Beacon’s chief executive officer. “Takeda’s world class R&D organization and outstanding disease area expertise will help us realize our goal to discover first-in-class medicines”.

The agreement grants Takeda worldwide rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize products resulting from the collaboration. In exchange, Beacon will receive an upfront payment, research support, and is eligible to receive milestone payments as well as royalties on future sales of such products.

GPCRs are a large family of cell surface receptors that respond to a variety of external signals. Close to 30% of marketed drugs target this receptor family. GPCR research has expanded in recent years from traditional orthosteric receptor-ligand interactions to encompass new approaches based on signaling via beta-arrestin, biased ligands, allosteric ligands, and persistent signaling. In addition, the revolution in GPCR structural biology has enabled significant advances in both biophysical methods and computational modeling of receptors which can aid in the design of new molecules to target these receptors.