Takeda Pharmaceutical has opened a new 165,000-square-foot research facility in San Diego, California. The facility houses more 250 employees focused on specialized drug-discovery technologies and discovery research in gastroenterology and neuroscience.

The facility is home to four research platform groups: structural biology, early-target discovery, computational biology, and biologics. The new research center in San Diego complements Takeda’s global research and development (R&D) center in Cambridge, Massachusetts and its other global research site in Shonan, Japan.

Takeda’s R&D efforts are in four therapeutic areas—oncology, gastroenterology (GI), neuroscience and rare diseases—with targeted investments in plasma-derived therapies and vaccines. More than 50% of Takeda’s research pipeline focuses on non-small molecules, including biologics, peptides, oligonucleotides, cell and gene therapy, the microbiome, and other modalities.

In addition to the internal research conducted on site, the San Diego research center will play a role in connecting local collaborators with Takeda’s global network of more than 200 research partners. Additionally, in the last three years, Takeda, through its venture group, has committed $35 million to Southern California start-up companies.

Source: Takeda Pharmaceutical