Top biotech companies in Japan such as Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Astellas are promoting the growth of biotech sector in Japan through substantial infrastructural investment. Takeda established Shonan iPark, a facility that hosts 1,700 researchers, and has lab and office spaces in 2018. Astellas in collaboration with incubator, BioLabs, launched a biotech facility.
The Astellas’s Tsukuba Research Center is located in a planned science city (Tsukuba) by the government. The city has many national research institutes, two universities and over 240 private research facilities.
Major segments of the biotech industry in Japan include biopharmaceuticals, regenerative medicines, gene therapy, invitro diagnostics, digital health, and industrial biotechnology. Japan has the largest bioinformatics database in Asia. The country has the third largest patents globally (184,372) in 2021. R&D spending was 3.35% of Japan’s GDP (19.74 trillion yen). The total biotech sector was estimated at 5.2 trillion yen in 2020.
Some of the success stories include ReproCELL, the first company to launch an iPSC-derived research product, and Heartseed Inc., with clinical trials studying iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes to treat heart failure. Chordia Therapeutics Inc is working on its lead oncology pipeline, CTX-712, a first-in-class, pan-CLK inhibitor.
Japan has a long history of successs in the biopharma sector. In the 1980s, Japanese biopharma industry was booming, and produced 29% of all new US Food and Drug Administration approved chemical entities. However, this figure declined to 7% between 2011 and 2020. This is due to the removal of financial incentives for biotech innovation by the Japanese government, and also the slow transition of the biotech sector from small molecule development to biologics.
Daiichi Hibiya Building 7F Shimbashi 1-18-21, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0004
Web: https://alivexis.com
Amano Enzyme Inc.
2-7, 1-chome, Nishiki, Naka-Ku, Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, 460-8630 Japan Sales TEL:+81-(0)52-211-3032 Fax: +81-(0)52-211-3054 General Tel: +81-(0)52-211-3034 Fax: +81-(0)52-211-3038 https://www.amano-enzyme.com/
Tokyo Office: 8F AMANO Shibakoen Building, 2-8, 1-chome, Shibakoen, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 105-0011 Japan Tel: +81-(0)3-6452-8970 Fax: +81-(0)3-6452-8971
Innovation Center: 1-6 Techno Plaza, Kakamigahara City, Gifu Prefecture, 509-0109 Japan Tel: +81-(0)58-379-1220 Fax: +81-(0)58-379-1232
Amgen
Midtown Tower, 9-chome, Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Tel: 03-5293-9900 https://www.amgen.co.jp/
Amino Up Co., Ltd.
363-32 Shin-ei, Kiyota-ku, Sapporo, 004-0839, Japan
Web: https://www.aminoup.jp
AnGes, Inc.
Head Office: Saito Bio-Incubator, 7-7-15, Saito-asagi, Ibaraki, Osaka, 567-0085 Japan
Tokyo Office: 9F, PMO TAMACHI Ⅱ, 4-13-3, Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-0014 Japan
Tonomachi R&D Center: (CMC/ Drug Discovery Research) Innovation Center of NanoMedicine, 3-25-14, Tonomachi, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, 210-0821 Japan
AnGes Clinical Research Laboratory (ACRL): Life Science & Environment research center, 3-25-13, Tonomachi, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, 210-0821 Japan
Web: https://www.anges.co.jp/
ARCALIS Inc.
320-20 Kawauchisaku Shimoota Haramachi-ku Minamisouma-shi, Fukushima 9750041 Japan
