Takeda announces investment in Fate Therapeutics

Takeda has made an equity investment in Fate Therapeutics, an innovative biotechnology company conducting research into stem cells.

The investment has been made via the firm's corporate venture arm Takeda Ventures and is intended to complement and enhance its own activities in the field of regenerative medicine.

Fate Therapeutics creates products based on the modulation of stem cell pathways, with its lead product FT1050 currently undergoing clinical evaluation among adult patients with haematologic malignancies in the US.

It is a multi-award-winning organisation that has also received investments from pharmaceutical companies such as Astellas and Genzyme.

Dr Graeme Martin, president and chief executive officer at Takeda Ventures, said Fate is a "world-leading company in stem cell science-based therapeutics, using the most advanced rare cell isolation and cell state characterisation technologies to elucidate disease biology and identify selective targets for biologics-based therapeutics".

This comes after Takeda's UK-based Cambridge subsidiary expanded its working relationship with Dimerix Bioscience last month to include a new project with potential applications in drug development.