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Pharamaceuticals

R&D Organization

With the aim of identifying solutions and bringing our pharmaceuticals to patients around the world as quickly as possible, Kyowa Hakko Kirin has assembled a comprehensive organization of research and development facilities.

Frontier Laboratory

As its name signifies, this center focuses on the development of one-of-a-kind technologies at the frontiers of technology that will serve as platforms for the creation of pharmaceutical innovation.

Tokyo Research Park

While pursuing discovery research targeting new drug development, this center aims at creating antibody development candidates.

Fuji Research Park

From the discovery of pharmaceutical candidates to guiding them through the clinical testing stages, this center is the core of Kyowa Hakko Kirin's pharmaceutical research and development activities.

Production Technologies

Kyowa Hakko Kirin is also developing new production technologies for antibody pharmaceuticals and other drugs resulting from our biotechnology R&D and reinforcing capabilities to produce pharmaceuticals for clinical research.

BioWa, Inc. / U.S.A.

BioWa is a (exclusive world-wide) licensor of Enhanced Antibody Activity Technology (POTELLIGENTR). 

Hematech, Inc. / U.S.A.

Research and development continues into the technology base for the production of polyclonal antibody medicines.

Kirin Pharma USA, Inc. / U.S.A.

With the cooperation of U.S.A-based medical research and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology, progress is being made in drug discovery research and development in the U.S.A.

Kyowa Pharmaceutical, Inc. / U.S.A.

Clinical development and research is ongoing in the U.S.A.

Kyowa Hakko U.K. Ltd. / U.K.

Clinical development and research is ongoing in the U.K.

Antibody Engineering Technology

In parallel with drug discovery research using advanced biotechnology, Kyowa Hakko Kirin is also undertaking research in platform technologies related to antibody engineering. Exploiting the genome research assets and research network that we have fostered over our history, we are creating antibodies against target proteins and other molecules that are important target for drug discovery and developing therapeutic antibodies in our focused fields of cancer and immunological diseases. Through genetic engineering technologies that produce antibodies with enhanced efficacy (enhanced antibody activity technology) and those that use animals to produce antibodies that are equivalent to human-produced antibodies and compatible with the human body (fully human antibody production technology), and then linking them to the value chain of production process technology, our company is aiming to create future assets through biotechnology-based pharmaceuticals.

Therapeutic Antibodies

Antibodies are proteins generated endogenously to fight and eliminate the viruses, bacteria and other foreign substances (antigens) which invade the body. Antibodies have a unique ability to bind to a particular part of foreign substances (antigens) called the epitope, thus marking them as harmful substances, and result in their elimination directly or with aid of immunocytes. Antibodies are hence a vital substance acting as one part of immune system.

Therapeutic antibodies are pharmaceuticals based on antibody's feature that recognize antigens specifically. Currently, therapeutic antibodies have been developed that are able to recognize and attack antigens specifically expressed in cancer cells and are gaining attention as an effective way of treating cancer with fewer side effects. Possible expansion of therapeutic antibodies would be expected through the identification of new antigens as the target for drug discovery by further genome analysis.

The Current Circumstances Surrounding Therapeutic Antibodies

Numerous companies are involved in the development of therapeutic antibodies, from world-wide pharmaceutical company called Mega Pharma to start-up Biotechs. The acquisition of antigens with promising potential for therapeutics is a key part of this development.

Since antibodies generated in cattle and mice are effective in the first-dose but then may lose their efficacy, and also have various side effects (antigenicity), it is preferable to administer antibody molecules that are as close as possible to human antibodies.

Production cost is one of the other issues of therapeutic antibodies. Because of the quantitative limitation that can be produced by each cell, massive costs ensue from the equipment needed to cultivate animal cells in large numbers, from quality control and raw materials cost.

Accordingly, challenges for therapeutic antibody development are

  1. the acquisition of antigens linked to treatments;
  2. sufficient safety for repeated treatments;
  3. efficient manufacturing methods and ways of keeping costs down.

Utilizing POTELLIGENT® and COMPLEGENT™ technologies for producing enhanced antibody activity and its Fully Human Antibody Producing Mouse (KM Mouse®) and human antibody producing cattle technologies, Kyowa Hakko Kirin will strive for the creation of new therapeutic antibodies in cooperation with its worldwide partners.

Pipelines

Kyowa Hakko Kirin holds high expectations for the efficacy of numerous new drug candidates, applying all our cutting-edge technologies to advance their development.