Fujifilm Holdings has agreed to acquire its remaining stake in Toyama Chemical, a company developing small-molecule pharmaceutical products, to give it full ownership. Fujifilm Holdings is acquiring the remaining stake from Toyama Chemical’s parent company, Taisho Pharmaceutical Holdings, which currently owns 34% of the company while Fujifilm owns 66%.

Following the close of the deal, Toyama Chemical will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujifilm on July 31, 2018. Fujifilm then plans to merge Toyama Chemical and Fujifilm RI Pharma, a company developing radiopharmaceuticals, to form Fujifilm Toyama Chemical, as of October 1, 2018. The focus of the new company will be the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic drugs and by combining the two entities, Fujifilm says it will strengthen the relationship between “diagnosis” and “treatment” by merging Toyama Chemical and Fujifilm RI Pharma.

The new company, Fujifilm Toyama Chemical, will develop new diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals and therapeutic drugs with mechanisms of action in the fields of oncology, central nervous system diseases, and infectious diseases. The new company will also promote the further development of drug-delivery system (DDS) technologies that deliver the required amount of a drug to the specific area of the body on the necessary schedule, which includes capabilities in liposome preparation technologies and micro-needle arrays applied to existing drugs and newer modalities such as nucleic-acid drugs and gene-therapy drugs.

Currently, Fujifilm is developing and commercializing a range of drugs. The company acquired manufacturing and marketing approval in Japan for Avigan (favipiravir), an anti-influenza virus drug. It is conducting clinical trials of an Alzheimer’s disease drug in Japan and the US as well as developing and marketing radiopharmaceuticals. It has also undertaken research and development of anti-cancer drugs and the development of DDS technologies.

Source: Fujifilm Holdings