• Research collaboration with Osaka University highly valued for the creation of Actemra, an anti-rheumatic agent with the world’s first mechanism

TOKYO, February 13, 2019 – Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (TOKYO: 4519) announced today that it received the President’s Award of the Japan Techno-Economics Society for the drug discovery efforts for Actemra^®, the world’s first anti-IL-6 receptor antibody created in Japan in the 7th Technology Management and Innovation Awards sponsored by Japan Techno-Economics Society (JATES).
The Technology Management and Innovation Awards were established in 2012, aiming at contributing to economic development and social transformation in Japan, and stronger global competitiveness by broadly introducing outstanding innovations developed in Japan. Actemra is a therapeutic antibody created by Chugai and intended to block the activity of IL-6, a type of inflammatory cytokine. The drug is globally used for the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and giant cell arteritis. Great significance of improving quality of life (QoL) of patients suffering from diseases related to IL-6 and the process leading to drug discovery in collaboration with academia were highly appreciated, resulting in the first award-winning achievement as Chugai.

“We are very pleased to receive the award of the Technology Management and Innovation Awards because of high appreciation for our drug discovery efforts for Actemra in a collaborative research with Osaka University,” said Hisafumi Okabe, Executive Vice President in charge of Research and Translational Research. “There are a number of diseases with unmet medical needs in the world. We will continue to create innovation so that we can provide optimal medical care with new medications, aiming at developing hand in hand with Society through resolution of social issues.”

[Reasons for the award]
This innovation was brought by an industry-academia partnership between researchers from the manufacturer seeking for the treatment of immune diseases and Osaka University where seeds had been discovered. Actemra, the world’s first anti-IL-6 receptor antibody created in Japan, was originated from this joint efforts. Furthermore, its unique innovation management placing a priority on unmet medical needs (medical needs for diseases that have no effective treatment) by research and development focusing on rare diseases, has helped it to obtain approval for expanded indications to treat a variety of diseases. Great significance of improving QoL of patients suffering from diseases related to IL-6 and the process leading to drug discovery were highly appreciated, resulting in the award-winning achievement.

Technical details and innovation process will be presented by the awardees on June 4.

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