(Yicai) Nov. 28 -- Takeda China has deepened its partnerships with global and local partners of diverse backgrounds to explore the digital innovation incubation platform TakedaSpark, according to the Chinese unit of Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical.

Takeda China formed an alliance with consulting firms including PricewaterhouseCoopers and Accenture, tech giant Amazon Web Services and biochemical fund Shanghai Biopharmaceutical Innovative Transformation Fund last week, Takeda China said, adding that the deals aim to promote a collaborative model in the digital healthcare field, from incubation to commercialization.

Shanghai-based Takeda China launched TakedaSpark in 2021 to focus on digitized therapy, early-stage screening and diagnoses, and intelligent services. The platform is intended to find projects that are commercially viable and to create digitized health-related solutions.

More than 200 companies have signed up to the platform and 12 innovative plans have already had their concepts verified.

“Every year, Takeda Pharma invests over CNY15 billion (about USD2 billion) globally in digitized innovation, reforms, research and development, as well as production and business operation,” senior vice president of Takeda and president of Takeda China Sean Shan told Yicai. “Takeda China also noticed the trend of digitization from 2018 and has constantly attempted digitized innovation and transformation.”

The new indication for Takeda China’s vonoprazan fumarate tablets, which treat Helicobacter pylori, has been greenlit by China’s National Medical Products Administration. Shan noted that H. pylori is recognized by the World Health Organization as one of the key risk factors in stomach cancer and the tablets can eliminate 94 percent of the bacteria. This could be important in China, where the condition is relatively common. 

Shan said that in future, Takeda China will help with early recognition of H. pylori infections, so that people can be properly diagnosed and treated by companies in the TakedaSpark ecological chain. Takeda Pharma is also promoting digitization in the area of rare and neurological diseases, Shan added. 

Its Chinese subsidiary has four treatments and one digitized therapy that are undergoing reviews. Shan said Takeda Pharma aims to link up with China’s innovative strengths to bring new products including digitized healthcare to the country and the rest of the world.