Japanese pharmaceutical Astellas and Drais Pharmaceuticals have partnered to develop an experimental Astellas drug, ASP7147, for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea through the virtual company Seldar, set up for the specific purpose of accelerating the compound’s development and commercialization.

The partnership is similar to one Astellas and Drais, a clinical development services company, entered into in April to transfer another Astellas compound, under development for the treatment of ulcerative colitis, from its pipeline to Telsar Pharma, another virtual biotech operated by the Drais team.

Both companies were set up by the lead investors in Drais—InterWest Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures—along with Astellas Venture Management. The three groups will invest a total of $13 million into Seldar, which will provide a runway to further develop the compound with Drais serving as the exclusive provider of development services. Telsar is receiving $14 million from the same syndicate of investors to fund the development of its experimental ulcerative colitis treatment.

Under the terms of the agreement, Astellas will transfer to Seldar all rights and assets related to ASP7147, which is ready for an early-stage dosing study. Seldar will be responsible for all development, manufacturing, and commercialization activities and their associated costs. Astellas is entitled to receive a milestone payment and royalties on future sales of the drug and also has the right of first exclusive negotiation for future partnering activities and the right of first refusal for the Japanese market related to ASP7147. Astellas also has the right of non-exclusive negotiation for other markets.

The Seldar and Telsar licensing deals through Drais are part of Astellas’ new “Multi-Track R&D” approach. “This new strategy enables us to move our promising compounds forward without any disruption in the development process,” says Yoshihiko Hatanaka, president and CEO of Astellas. “Additionally, this new approach allows us to optimize costs and control risks while accessing outside capital and expertise. We believe the partnership with Drais is an excellent opportunity for us to increase our ability to bring innovative medicines to patients.”

Astellas and Drais are considering making their collaborative model a long-term enterprise by moving additional Astellas compounds into virtual companies for development by Drais. It’s a model that is being adopted by an increasing number of drugmakers and venture capital firms as a way to move promising drugs forward that might otherwise be shelved due to priority considerations.

The managements of Astellas and Drais have a lot of experience working with each other. The co-founders of Drais, Donna Tempel and Robert Desjardins, were previously the senior management of Yamanouchi R&D in the United States, which was a precursor company to Astellas. Later they served as the executive team of AkaRx, acquired by Eisai/MGI for $300 million in 2010. Arnold Oronsky, general partner at InterWest, and Jeff Bird, managing director at Sutter Hill Ventures were both board members at AkaRx and are current board members and investors in Drais. Astellas Venture Investment was also an investor in AkaRx.