As the core of the Kyorin Group’s pharmaceutical business, KYORIN Pharmaceutical focuses on R&D to ensure that the best products are delivered to patients as quickly as possible. Our future vision for the Company under the long?term vision HOPE 100 is to be a drug manufacturer that is trusted by patients and medical professionals, and is recognized for its presence in society. Under the HOPE 100 Stage 1 mediumterm business plan, our goal is to establish a strong presence in specific fields, while discovering new, original drugs on a global basis. Specifically, the Company is working on building an attractive drug pipeline in respiratory medicine, otolaryngology, and urology, while creating several new drugs and out-licensing such new drugs globally.
KYORIN Pharmaceutical’s Kyorin Discovery Research Laboratories in Japan, and ActivX Biosciences, Inc. in the United States, explores drug discovery seeds and leads. With the Group’s strengths in synthesis and ability to swiftly evaluate drug efficacy, pharmacology, ADME (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion), and safety, and with close collaboration between departments that promotes more reliable results, we are able to efficiently promote the discovery of compounds with development potential and thus facilitate high-quality clinical trials.
In the medium- to long-term, the Kyorin Group’s research strategy will focus on key fields including respiratory medicine, urology, and infectious diseases, and we also work on other fields to meet unmet medical needs. In selecting our R&D themes, we are working with a cross-functional team to evaluate opportunities using a Company-wide, multi-perspective approach to determine target diseases and the corresponding concept of products we wish to develop. In addition, we are strengthening our search for the seeds of new drugs by promoting open innovation with outside entities and working to further expand our drug discovery network. We are also working to further streamline clinical development (clinical trials in Asia, as well as joint international trials) with the goal of bringing lifecycle management projects in specific fields and other development projects to market as quickly as possible, as we continue to build an extensive drug portfolio.
Focus on Timelines in Research and Development
Under HOPE 100 Stage 1, we have classified our initiatives based on the stage at which their results are to be realized, paying close attention to the plan’s timeline as we promote research and development activities.
Under the medium-term business plan, we will aim to introduce the bronchial asthma treatment KRP-108 within fiscal 2014 and out-license KRP-104, our anti-diabetes agent. At the same time, we will work actively on the lifecycle management of our pharmaceuticals.
