Johnson & Johnson Innovation has opened its Asia Pacific Innovation Center in Shanghai, with satellites in Singapore, Australia and Japan. The Center will identify and develop promising early-stage opportunities across the company’s three areas of focus: Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices and Diagnostics and Consumer healthcare products.
 
“We are excited to launch the Asia Pacific Innovation Center which builds on the momentum of our Centers in London, California and Boston. Our goal is to collaborate with the best minds in the region to advance new technologies and deliver transformative solutions for the people of China and Asia Pacific at large, and throughout the world,” said Paul Stoffels, MD, Johnson & Johnson chief scientific officer and worldwide chairman, Pharmaceuticals. 
 
To date, the Innovation Centers have established more than 80 collaborations, including the following six new alliances in Australia and China.
 
A collaboration with James Cook University will explore new approaches in autoimmune disease. The research seeks to harness the ability of hookworms to regulate the human immune response for people with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
 
Janssen Australia and J&J Innovation have extended an existing collaboration with University of Queensland (UoQ) on a spider venom project to identify peptides as potential treatments for pain.
 
J&J Innovation has established a broad collaboration with China Pharmaceutical University on several projects across its consumer and pharmaceutical businesses. The projects include research around a novel antibody-drug conjugate to treat solid tumors as well as collaborations to explore new functional foods for improved health.
 
A collaboration with Peking University aims to identify agonists and antagonists for G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to help develop novel CNS medicines.
 
A collaboration with Zhejiang University will explore the physiological and pathological role of human lactate receptor GPR81 in the regulation of metabolism and metabolic syndrome such as dyslipidemia, obesity, and diabetes.
 
Additionally, J&J has established a Partnering Office at BioBAY in Suzhou, an incubator with more than 400 companies in the areas of drug discovery, biotech, IVD, medical devices and nanotech. The office will serve as an extension of the Asia Pacific Innovation Center to work with academics and entrepreneurs on a more local basis.