UK healthcare and life science company Arix Bioscience has signed an agreement with the Lead Discovery Center (LDC), Max Planck Innovation and the University of Leeds to develop new therapeutics for metabolic diseases.

Under the deal, Arix will fund and manage experimental work that builds on discoveries from the faculty of cardiovascular medicine and diabetes at the University of Leeds and LDC, focusing on developing antagonists of a novel target for a variety of metabolic indications.

This is the first project to come out of an agreement signed in 2016 between Arix and LDC under which LDC shares pipeline projects with the London-headquartered group. LDC, which was established by German institutes Max Planck Innovation and Max Planck Society to capitalize on the potential of their research, takes basic pathobiology or novel targets from academia and uses its integrated drug discovery platform to produce new candidate therapies for development.

Joe Anderson, CEO of Arix Bioscience, said the collaboration demonstrates the company’s ability to convert its high-quality relationships into tangible projects based on academic scientific excellence with long-term commercial potential. Anderson commented: “We recently raised £100 million in an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange from a range of high quality investors who are supportive of our strategy and enthusiastic about our pipeline. We believe the combination of capital and strategic guidance we can offer can have a transformative impact on early-stage scientific discovery.”

Earlier this month, Arix announced a strategic agreement with Takeda Ventures, the California, US-based corporate venture arm of Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical. The partners will work together across important therapeutic areas such as oncology and gastrointestinology. Takeda invested an undisclosed sum in Arix’s initial public offering last month.