Portal Pathbreakers with Otsuka

Join 2025 Portal Pathbreakers program! Portal Innovations and the McQuade Center for Strategic Research and Development, LLC (MSRD), a member of the global Otsuka family of pharmaceutical companies, are coming together to catalyze startups in psychiatry, neurodegenerative diseases, nephrology, and rare autoimmune that are making strides for therapeutics. Portal and Otsuka's MSRD are collaborating to identify promising startups, providing selected applicants with the opportunity to receive lab space, research capital, or potentially secure a strategic partnership. Below is more information on the program, and we encourage related startups to apply!

What is the Portal Pathbreakers Program?

Portal Pathbreakers presents a unique opportunity for pharmaceutical partners to tap into the heart of local biotech innovation emerging across the nation. Leveraging a pharma partner‘s areas of interests, we will meticulously curate applicants and focus our sourcing efforts on groundbreaking technologies in alignment with our partner’s strategy. We're excited to partner with Otsuka's MSRD for our 2025 program that will look for groundbreaking startups within psychiatry, neurodegenerative disease, nephrology, and rare autoimmune disease.

Who can apply?

U.S.-based startups that are at least at the seed stage, and specifically focused on the following disease categories:

Psychiatry: Depression, Anxiety, and Schizoaffective disorders, with programs that target receptors known to positively affect mood in humans, including 5-HT2R, NMDAR, AChR, etc.
Rare Neurodegenerative disease: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), other tauopathies and TDP-43opathies. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease opportunities may be considered if a therapeutic-aligned biomarker exists to stratify patient subsets.
Nephrology: Glomerular and tubular chronic kidney diseases, Immune-mediated kidney diseases, Renal fibrosis.
Rare Autoimmune: Subsets of Rheumatology and dermatology, including Sjogren’s Syndrome, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, ANCA-associated Vasculitis, Pyoderma gangrenosum, and Dermatomyocytis; with an emphasis on modulation of Innate activation, tolerogenesis, and metabolic reprogramming.
Preferred Modalities: Small Molecule, Peptidic/Biologic, RNA therapeutics (ASO, siRNAs, etc). Cell and Gene Therapies are currently low priority.
Areas Out of Focus: Oncology, Obesity and metabolic disorders, Cardiovascular disease, Repurposed drugs.

Finalists for the Portal Pathbreakers program will be selected by MSRD.

What's the benefit?

Selected startups have the ability to gain ecosystem placement, research capital, or strategic partnerships with MSRD and Otsuka affiliates. These startups will be notified by October 1st, and take part in a final pitch day in November 2025. Startups have the ability receive to the following:

Ecosystem Placement - Eligible startups may receive up to $50,000 in sponsored support for lab and office rental fees within Portal’s ecosystem.
Research Capital - Eligible startups may receive a $50,000 USD cash research grant
Strategic Partnership Award - Eligible startups may be considered for long-term partnerships via a Sponsored Research Agreement or research and collaboration agreement.

About Portal Innovations

Portal Innovations is a premier venture development engine with a presence in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Dublin, New Brunswick, and Providence that bridges scientiﬁc ideation in life sciences through commercial proof of concept by delivering Crafted Capital, including seed funding, specialized equipment, lab space, and management expertise to high-potential early-stage companies. For more information about Portal Innovations and its portfolio companies, please visit https://www.portalinnovations.com.

About the McQuade Center for Strategic Research and Development (MSRD)

Established in 2019, by the Otsuka pharmaceutical business in the U.S., the mission of MSRD is to search for, identify, and fund innovative early-stage research and development programs that have the potential to build the future portfolio of Otsuka products.

Otsuka is dedicated to investing in innovative and creative products in areas of unmet need and MSRD was created as an extension of this commitment to support and identify early-stage opportunities that can change the landscape of treatments for mental illness and renal disorders. For more information, please visit https://msrd-us.com/.

About Otsuka

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. is a global healthcare company with the corporate philosophy: “Otsuka–people creating new products for better health worldwide.” Otsuka researches, develops, manufactures, and markets innovative products, with a focus on pharmaceutical products to meet unmet medical needs and nutraceutical products for the maintenance of everyday health.

In pharmaceuticals, Otsuka is a leader in the challenging areas of mental, renal, and cardiovascular health and has additional research programs in oncology and on several under-addressed diseases including tuberculosis, a significant global public health issue. These commitments illustrate how Otsuka is a “big venture” company at heart, applying a youthful spirit of creativity in everything it does.

Otsuka established a presence in the U.S. in 1973 and today its U.S. affiliates include Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc. (OPDC) and Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. (OAPI). These two companies’ 1,700 employees in the U.S. develop and commercialize medicines in the areas of mental health, nephrology, and cardiology, using cutting-edge technology to address unmet healthcare needs.

OPDC and OAPI are indirect subsidiaries of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd. headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The Otsuka group of companies employed 47,000 people worldwide and had consolidated sales of approximately USD 13.3 billion in 2020.

All Otsuka stories start by taking the road less traveled. Learn more about Otsuka in the U.S. at www.otsuka-us.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter at @OtsukaUS. Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.’s global website is accessible at www.otsuka.co.jp/en/.

2025 Portal Pathbreakers Program with Otsuka's MSRD!

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