Society　＞　Together with Patients and Healthcare ProfessionalsResearch & Development

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.”

In order to increase opportunities for establishing drug discovery targets and acquiring new technologies, as part of our drug discovery activities, we are creating an environment that makes it easier to generate new synergies, such as Shonan Health Innovation Park (Shonan iPark), and aggressively promoting Open Shared Business in collaboration with industry, academia, and government, and we are also leveraging external drug discovery resources.

In addition, we aim to realize a sustainable society by quickly creating precision medicines that provide appropriate medical care to appropriate patients at appropriate timing, which increases the treatment satisfaction of patients and contributes to social security.

We have created treatment options for intractable diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis.

Edaravone was developed as a treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which causes progressive muscular atrophy and muscle weakness as its principal symptoms. Based on the results of clinical trials in Japan, we obtained approval in Japan, followed by South Korea, the United States, Canada, Switzerland, and Asian countries.

Additionally, we obtained approval for edaravone oral suspension in the U.S. in May 2022, and the product was launched in June of the same year. Edaravone oral suspension is intended to reduce patient burden. In Japan, it was approved for use in December 2022, and launched in April the following year, also gaining approval in Canada and Switzerland, where it went on sale. To provide the drug to more patient, we have completed application for its approval in South Korea and are working to expand further into other countries. In the U.S., the drug was well received for its contribution to rare diseases and patients, and received orphan-drug exclusive approval for seven years from the time of its approval. Looking to the future we will continue working to expand the number of countries where edaravone oral suspension is available, and to improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

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 2021, we began clinical trials of Dersimelagon as a treatment for systemic sclerosis, which is a rare disease and characterized by hardening of the skin and internal organs.

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.

The environment for the discovery of new drugs is significantly changing, and the difficulty of discovery has increased year after year. In this environment, we are aggressively advancing open innovation to continuously create and provide 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 expanding opportunities to collaborate by forming human networks with resident companies including pharmaceutical companies, drug discovery ventures, drug discovery support services, research equipment and medical equipment, as well as AI and IoT companies. Shonan iPark was established by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. with the opening of its research institute, and in January 2021, we established a framework for sharing some of our internal assessment data with Takeda Pharmaceutical. We seek to improve the productivity and efficiency of drug discovery activities by sharing and using initial assessment data obtained in-house for known compounds.

As indicated in the Medium-Term Management Plan 21–25, Shonan iPark is also engaged in drug discovery from genes identified for intractable neurological diseases and drug discovery from targeted phenotypic screening by analyzing clinical specimens and patient information on autoimmune diseases.

In April 2021, the NeuroDiscovery Lab, a satellite research base, was opened in the Smart Lab, which hosts about 40 companies, mainly with pharmaceutical R&D focus, in the Boston area of the U.S., and we have started searching for new drug discovery targets for the central nervous system disorders including ALS. We will aim to realize precision medicine in the central nervous system area through the exploration of seeds for early drug discovery research in the Boston Ecosystem, and through the acquisition of opportunities for collaboration.

Going forward, we will continue to utilize MP Healthcare Venture Management, an investment subsidiary, and overseas research bases including Boston Lab to conduct a detailed analysis of diseases for which unmet medical needs remain, reform the drug discovery process, and increase open innovation to realize precision medicine so that we can provide highly effective treatment to specific patient groups and increase patient satisfaction.

Main Alliances for Fiscal 2024

Note: Information on this page pertains to activities and results for fiscal 2024.