Priority Disease Areas

With a focus on the Oncology and Psychiatry & Neurology (CNS) as priority disease areas, the Sumitomo Pharma Group will contribute to the betterment of healthcare and fuller lives of people worldwide through diverse approaches, including pharmaceutical products, regenerative medicine/cell therapy.

Our approach to the two priority disease areas and other areas

The Group aims to establish itself as a “Global Specialized Player” by 2033. With a focus on the Psychiatry & Neurology and Oncology disease areas, where unmet medical needs are high, we will make the utmost of the experience and knowledge that we have acquired so far to continue making active efforts for research and development of pharmaceuticals, regenerative medicine/cell therapy, non-pharmaceutical products, and otherwise. In other areas, too, we will tap into assets at hand and make steady R&D efforts to deliver solid value to patients. With regard to drug discovery research, we will forge ahead with our translational research and biomarker research and develop modality technologies to further strengthen our highly unique foundation for drug discovery. In addition, we will propel data-driven drug discovery to continuously create candidate compounds that focus on the essence of clinical conditions.

Small molecule Molecular design/synthesis based on accumulated experience/know-how Regenerative medicine/ cell therapy Know-how acquired by pioneering initiatives Non-pharmaceutical(Frontier) To be developed in the mental resilience area Other modalities Pursuit of optimal modalities ☓ Psychiatry & Neurology Area Oncology Area Other Areas *Womens health issues, urological diseases, diabetes, rare diseases, infectious diseases

Oncology Area

Through our R&D activities to date, we have gained a variety of knowledge, strengthened our drug discovery capabilities, and created multiple development pipelines with distinctive features. Making use of these achievements, we continue to focus on research and development in the area of oncology, where there are high unmet medical needs.

In drug discovery, we aim to create innovative new drugs by enhancing our competitiveness through the development of modalities using our new technologies as well as initiatives, such as joint research with academia.

In the development stage, we aim to improve the probability of success by carefully evaluating data from short-term, small-scale studies to identify optimum cancer types and product value for multiple development pipelines undergoing initial clinical evaluation. In particular, we are concentrating our resources on enzomenib (DSP-5336) and nuvisertib (TP-3654), aiming for obtaining early approval and maximizing their value.

Psychiatry & Neurology (CNS) Area

We promote competitive drug discovery research based on our proprietary drug discovery platform, which we have built up by incorporating cutting-edge technologies. In the CNS area, we are committed to continuous value creation by focusing on neurological disorders with high unmet medical needs, including neurodegenerative and rare diseases. In particular, we aim to develop innovative new drugs—such as disease-modifying treatments—by applying our proprietary small molecule drug discovery technologies with strong CNS penetration to targets closely linked to clinical pathology. We are also leveraging non-clinical models with high relevance, such as iPS cells, while further enhancing our accumulated translational technologies, including EEG and imaging, to improve the probability of R&D success.
In FY2017, we introduced a new Research Project System, under which researchers who have devised project themes take the lead in their projects up to the initial clinical development stage as a general rule.

Other Areas

We tap into assets at hand and make steady R&D efforts to deliver solid value to patients.

  • To contribute to global health and pandemic preparedness, we are promoting research and development of a universal influenza vaccine and a drug for antimicrobial resistant bacterial infections.

Regenerative medicine/cell therapy

The regenerative medicine/cell therapy business aims to provide new value that can only be created through regenerative medicine by utilizing our strengths in networking through open innovation with academia, startup companies, and other industries; accumulated technologies for the practical application of iPS cells, as represented by the differentiation induction technology from pluripotent stem cells; and abundant manufacturing capabilities and manufacturing methods, infrastructure, and human resources related to cell production.
We have been engaged in research activities in regenerative medicine and cell therapy since the 1990s, drawing on foundational knowledge and intellectual property obtained through Sumitomo Chemical’s basic research using human ES cells, as well as Sumitomo Chemical’s joint research with RIKEN in the ophthalmology area. In FY2024, to accelerate business development in this area, Sumitomo Chemical and Sumitomo Pharma established a joint venture company, RACTHERA. Together, we are promoting efforts to rapidly commercialize iPS cell-derived products, with the goal of becoming the first in the world to launch iPS cell-derived dopaminergic neural progenitor cells for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.