Mitsui Chemicals Inc. (TYO:4183) group plans to develop a plant cell culture technology for efficiently producing an ingredient in the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel, which is used to treat breast and other cancers. Making plant cells that efficiently generate useful components enables anti-cancer drug ingredients to be produced without the need to use plant resources, reducing...
Pharma
Chugai Pharmaceutical to Start Production in China
Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (TYO:4519) has announced that it will start manufacturing drugs in China, renting out a factory in the city of Taizhou to commence production of unstable angina drug Sigmart next summer. The Chinese pharmaceuticals market is projected to expand due to the country’s growing and aging population. Sigmart, along with a neutropenia...
Mitsui Invests in Large Chinese Biopesticide Company
Mitsui & Co. Ltd. (TYO:8031) has entered into a capital tie-up with Wuhan Kernel Bio-tech Co. Ltd., a large Chinese biopesticide manufacturer commonly known as Kernel. This was achieved when Mitsui acquired a 4.9 percent share in Kernel from Hong Kong Stock Exchange listed Grand Pharm (China) Co. Ltd., the pharmaceutical business of China Grand...
Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma to Use Petrochemical Manufacturing Techniques for Continuous Drug Production
Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. (TYO:4508), a member of the Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Group, hopes to make the continuous production of pharmaceuticals a practical endeavor. There are few cases of continuous production working properly in the pharmaceutical industry, but the method is in widespread use in petrochemicals. Mitsubishi Tanabe will apply manufacturing techniques developed in the...
CiRA Builds iPS Cell Stock, Targets 30% Coverage for Japan’s Population
The Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at Kyoto University expects to expand its stock of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells enough to cover around 30 percent of the Japanese population sometime during fiscal 2017. The cells are provided through CiRA’s iPS Cell Stock for Regenerative Medicine project, which produces iPS cells from...
Mitsubishi Tanabe to Acquire Israeli-Based NeuroDerm for $1.1 Billion
Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. (TYO:4508) announced an agreement on July 24 to acquire Israeli-based NeuroDerm Ltd. for about $1.1 billion, or $39 per share. NeuroDerm hopes to put ND0612, a Parkinson’s disease product candidate now in Phase III clinical testing in the U.S., on the market in fiscal 2019. This ties in with Mitsubishi Tanabe’s...
Teijin Promotes RFID Shelf Management System for Use in Medical Field
Teijin Ltd. (TYO:3401) is increasing its marketing for RecoPick, the company’s ultrahigh frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) shelf management system. In addition to expanding sales efforts toward factories and logistics, Teijin is targeting the medical field, where the company plans to begin full-scale marketing of the product as a solution to improve hospital management....
Fujitsu Moves Forward With IT-Soyaku Drug Discovery Technology
Fujitsu Ltd. (TYO:6702) has announced that it will move forward with IT-Soyaku, a new computer technology for in silico drug design, as part of the company’s plan to expand its health care operations. The software uses calculations to optimize the usually costly and time-consuming drug discovery process, analyzing the structure of a small-molecule compound drug...
JSR Will Buy Swiss Selexis to Expand Biopharma Business
JSR Corp. (TYO:4185) has announced plans to acquire Selexis SA, a company with specialized cell line generation technology. The Swiss firm undertakes contract development of cell lines needed to manufacture biopharmaceuticals. Its technology facilitates the swift generation of cell lines able to efficiently and stably cultivate virtually any recombinant protein. JSR owns a biopharmaceutical contract...
Nipro Mulls M&A to Grow Own-Brand Generic Drugs Lineup
Nipro Corp. (TYO:8086) CEO and President Yoshihiko Sano recently revealed that following the acquisition of Tanabe Seiyaku Hanbai Co. Ltd., the company is now considering M&A deals in the area of generic drugs. Nipro is aiming to acquire the generics business of a domestic manufacturer or the manufacturing and distribution rights for its generics and...
Nearly 20 Drug Companies Now Share Quality Control Info in PEGASS
Japanese drug makers have begun sharing quality control information on pharmaceutical excipients. About two years ago, seven companies established the Pharmaceutical Excipients GMP Audit Sharing System (PEGASS) for jointly contracting out good manufacturing practices (GMP) audits of excipient laboratories to an outside organization. Nearly 20 companies have now joined PEGASS, and they have begun sharing...
Satake Chemical Equipment to Launch World’s First Industrial iPSC Mass-Production System
Satake Chemical Equipment Mfg. Ltd. will introduce to market the world’s first equipment capable of mass-producing induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells for industrial use in regenerative medicine. The equipment can mass-produce uniform iPS cells through a single-use iPS cell differentiation induction culture apparatus. Development of iPS cell differentiation induction equipment has been progressing in several...
Philips Pursues Global Health Care Solutions in Japan
Philips Electronics Japan Ltd., a subsidiary of Koninklijke Philips NV, is seeking to develop global health care solutions from Japan. The plan is to network an array of medical equipment through Internet of Things (IoT) technology, then leverage AI to analyze the harvested big data. The company will also go beyond just solutions catering to...
Japan Biosimilar Association Raises Concerns Over Biopharmaceutical AGs
The Japan Biosimilar Association (JBSA) recently submitted its view on biopharmaceutical authorized generics (bio-AGs) to the Health Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare’s (MHLW) director of economics. JBSA’s report emphasized concerns regarding the negative impact that bio-AGs could have on the R&D and popularization of biosimilars. Such a development, the association...
Kobe University to Help Establish Center for Training Monoclonal Antibody Professionals
Kobe University is helping start up an initiative to support the training of professionals in the field of biopharmaceuticals. Japan produces few feasible biological monoclonal antibodies compared to Korea and Western countries, and also faces a shortage of experienced talent. Kobe University and its partners plan to establish a general incorporated association this summer to...
Sumitomo Bakelite Launches Steerable Microcatheter in US
Sumitomo Bakelite Co. Ltd. (TYO:4203) has launched its steerable microcatheter in the U.S. market. A mainstay of Sumitomo Bakelite’s medical products business division, the product is the world’s only microcatheter whose tip can be steered by remote control. It is mainly used in transarterial embolization (TAE) and transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) procedures to treat liver cancer....
Mitsui Takes Equity in Russia’s R-Pharm to Become Strategic Partner
Mitsui & Co. Ltd. (TYO:8031) has entered into a strategic partnership with JSC R-Pharm, the largest pharmaceutical company in Russia. Mitsui will acquire 10 percent of R-Pharm’s shares for roughly 20 billion yen ($179.38 million). Leveraging this capital investment, Mitsui will support R-Pharm in introducing new drugs from Japanese pharmaceutical manufacturers as it aims to...
Toray to Promote Early Cancer Detection Tech in US
Toray Industries Inc. (TYO:3402) has established a development base on the west coast of the U.S. as part of an effort to popularize blood test technology that can detect early stage cancer through the use of a DNA microarray. The technology is drawing international attention, and Toray intends to expand its business based around the...
Sumitomo Bakelite Enters Biliary Stent Market
Sumitomo Bakelite Co. Ltd. (TYO:4203) is entering the market for endoscopic biliary stents. The company this month has begun Japanese sales of South Korean S&G Biotech Inc.’s EGIS biliary stent, and plans to continue moving aggressively into biliary stents and other devices for endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). The company is looking to strengthen its business...
Fujifilm Develops 3D Vascular Mapping Technology
Fujifilm Holdings Corp. (TYO:4901) recently announced that it has developed software for 3D mapping of blood vessels for use in interventional radiology and other catheter surgical procedures. The system works in ways similar to car navigation systems, choosing a catheter route calculated to cause the least harm and discomfort to the patient. The software will...
