is a Japanese

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field an ...

and biotechnology company under the Kirin Holdings, and is among the 40 largest in the world by revenue. The company is headquartered in Chiyoda-ku,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

and is a member of the

Nikkei 225 The Nikkei 225, or , more commonly called the ''Nikkei'' or the ''Nikkei index'' (), is a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). It has been calculated daily by the '' Nihon Keizai Shimbun'' (''The Nikkei'') newspaper since 1950 ...

stock index.

History

On July 1, 1949 the forerunner of the present company, Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd. is established. Following the merger with Kirin Pharma Co., Ltd., on October 1, 2008 the company changed its name to its present. On July 11, 2014, the KHK subsidiary, ProStrakan Group (based in Scotland), acquired Archimedes Pharma from the

Novo Nordisk Foundation The Novo Nordisk Foundation is an international enterprise foundation focusing on medical treatment and research. In 2021, the foundation had a net worth of $93.73 billion (697 billion DKK),Novo Nordisk Foundation - Annual report 2021: https: ...

for $394 million In 2019, the entity was renamed "Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd.", replacing its prior name of Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd. In November 2022, Kyowa Kirin announced plans to spin its international established medicines portfolio into a new joint venture with German company

Grünenthal Grünenthal is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Aachen in Germany. It was founded in 1946 as Chemie Grünenthal and has been continuously family-owned. The company was the first to introduce penicillin into the German market in the ...

Business segments and products

* Pharmaceuticals business The company developed a method to make

afucosylated monoclonal antibodies Afucosylated monoclonal antibodies are monoclonal antibodies engineered so that the oligosaccharides in the Fc region of the antibody do not have any fucose sugar units. When antibodies are afucosylated, antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADC ...

using a CHO cell line in which ''

FUT8 Alpha-(1,6)-fucosyltransferase is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''FUT8'' gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation ...

'' has been knocked out; the company calls this its "Potelligent" platform. The company gained marketing approval in Japan in April 2012 for a monoclonal antibody drug called

mogamulizumab Mogamulizumab, sold under the brand name Poteligeo, is a humanized, afucosylated monoclonal antibody targeting CC chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it in August 2018 for treatment of relapsed or ...

which was developed using the platform. **

Central nervous system The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain and spinal cord. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity of all p ...

medicines **

Immunology Immunology is a branch of medicineImmunology for Medical Students, Roderick Nairn, Matthew Helbert, Mosby, 2007 and biology that covers the medical study of immune systems in humans, animals, plants and sapient species. In such we can see the ...

Allergy Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, refer a number of conditions caused by the hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic derm ...

medicines ** Nephrology medicines ***ESPO / NESP / Aranesp ***REGPARA **

Oncology Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''� ...

medicines *** ABSTRAL *** GRAN / Peglasta / Neulasta *** LEUNASE *** Mitomycin-C *** SANCUSO ** Diagnostics *** ''In vitro'' diagnostic

reagents In chemistry, a reagent ( ) or analytical reagent is a substance or compound added to a system to cause a chemical reaction, or test if one occurs. The terms ''reactant'' and ''reagent'' are often used interchangeably, but reactant specifies a ...

, analyzers and companion diagnostics * Bio-Chemicals business ** Biosimilars ** Monoclonal Antibodies ** Amino acids,

nucleic acids Nucleic acids are biopolymers, macromolecules, essential to all known forms of life. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made of three components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. The two main cl ...

and related compounds, health care products and other active pharmaceutical ingredients **

Vitamins A vitamin is an organic molecule (or a set of molecules closely related chemically, i.e. vitamers) that is an essential micronutrient that an organism needs in small quantities for the proper functioning of its metabolism. Essential nutrien ...

, minerals, peptides and

plant growth regulators Plant hormone (or phytohormones) are signal molecules, produced within plants, that occur in extremely low concentrations. Plant hormones control all aspects of plant growth and development, from embryogenesis, the regulation of organ size, pa ...

References

External links

* {{authority control Biopharmaceutical companies Biotechnology companies of Japan Pharmaceutical companies based in Tokyo Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Pharmaceutical companies established in 1949 Pharmaceutical companies of Japan 1949 establishments in Japan Japanese brands