Faust signs contract with Takeda

French clinical-stage drug discovery and development firm Faust Pharmaceuticals SA has entered into a research agreement with Japan's Takeda Pharmaceuticals. The deal, financial terms of which were not disclosed, will see the former utilize its Neuroclid GPCR (G protein-coupled receptor) platform to identify novel drug candidates to targets provided by the latter.

Faust's Neuroclid platform is designed to detect small molecules and other agents that bind the transmembrane regions of GPCRs, generally viewed as the most druggable class of therapeutic targets. Such molecules are believed to have potential as allosteric modulators, which are capable of amplifying or dampening the effect of endogenous ligands to a greater extent than traditional agonists and antagonists.

Takeda's general manager, Shigenori Ohkawa, said that the unique approach of the Faust platform is a "promising example of the state-of-the-art technologies that Takeda is willing to access from around the world in our search for novel drugs against these important drug targets."