As one of the world’s oldest pharmaceutical companies, the Company has delivered a multitude of unprecedented treatment options. Our history is one of not only eliminating incurability, but also offering treatment options. We will continually create new drugs for the world in response to our MISSION of “Creating hope for all facing illness.”
With regard to the selection of research and development themes, we define priorities through in-house discussion processes while emphasizing the importance of the magnitude of unmet medical needs, scientific rationale, and the value provided to patients, allocating our limited research assets effectively.
Our focus is on the two priority disease areas of the central nervous system and immuno-inflammation. At the same time, we are addressing new areas such as cancer and new modalities* and will identify areas and technologies that will become the pillars that support our future.
- Modality refers to a therapeutic approach in drug discovery, such as small and medium-sized molecule compounds, therapeutic antibodies, nucleic acid drugs, and gene therapy.
In the field of drug discovery, to identify drug discovery targets and broaden our opportunities to acquire new technologies, we are moving forward with creating environments such as the “Shonan Health Innovation Park (Shonan iPark)” which facilitate the creation of new synergies. In conjunction with this, we promote open innovation in collaboration with industry, academia, and government, and actively utilize external drug discovery resources.
Through efforts such as these, we work to quickly discover pharmaceuticals that may represent new treatment options, helping to create a sustainable society by improving patients’ satisfaction with their treatment and contributing to social security.
We have created treatment options for intractable diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis.
The Company created edaravone as a treatment for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), providing treatment options for many countries and regions, including Japan.
The edaravone business was transferred to Shionogi & Co., Ltd., in December 2025. The supply system for the therapeutic drugs remains unchanged after the transfer, and measures are in place to ensure that patients are not affected.
Going forward, the Company will position responding to unmet medical needs, including those of patients with intractable or rare diseases, as important research themes, and will work to discover drugs through the use of new technologies and open innovation.
Dersimelagon is being developed as a new treatment option for erythropoietic protoporphyria and X-Linked protoporphyria, which cause painful skin symptoms when exposed to sunlight. In January 2026, we obtained topline results for the global Phase 3 clinical trial (the INSPIRE study) for this drug.
We are also moving ahead with development of Dersimelagon as a treatment for systemic sclerosis, which is a rare disease characterized by hardening of the skin and internal organs, and began clinical trials in 2021.
We will continue to conduct research and development to achieve our MISSION and contribute to the realization of a healthy and sustainable society by creating hope for many patients and their families around the world who are fighting intractable diseases.
Environments for the discovery of new drugs are changing dramatically, with the difficulty of discovery increasing with every year. Under such circumstances, we are aggressively advancing open innovation to continuously offer new drugs that have value for patients and on the medical front lines.
We established a strategic R&D base in Shonan Health Innovation Park (Shonan iPark) in Kanagawa Prefecture in May 2019. We are creating and expanding opportunities to collaborate by forming human networks with pharmaceutical companies, drug discovery ventures, drug discovery support services, research and medical equipment manufacturers, as well as AI and IoT companies.
Main Alliances for Fiscal 2025
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Date announced |
Alliance details |
Alliance partner |
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July 2025 |
To initiate joint research aiming to create innovative cancer drugs in Targeted Alpha Therapy |
Veneno Technologies Co., Ltd. |