The market for
the overall biotechnology industry in
2002 expanded by 7.5 percent from 2001
to ¥1,433 billion. Of the total, the
biomedical market accounted for ¥818.7
billion, 7.3 percent larger than the
previous year. This biomedical market
breaks down into biotech pharmaceuticals
worth ¥539.24 billion, and biomedical
treatment and drugs-related products and
services worth ¥279.45 billion. The
market has been growing for the past
four years (1998 to 2002) at an average
annual rate of 6.7 percent. Main
products of biotech pharmaceuticals are
those produced by utilizing transgenic
technology, cell fusion technology and
cell culture technology.
Technologies in genome-based drug
development, cell therapy and
regenerative medicine are now in the
basic research-and-development stage at
major pharmaceutical companies,
universities and public research
institutions, with very few of them
being produced on a commercial basis. Of
the biotech pharmaceuticals produced in
2002, the highest proceeds of ¥120
billion came from erythropoietin,
followed by monoclonal antibody in-vitro
diagnostic agents (¥65 billion) and
human growth hormone (¥60 billion).
Showing particularly strong growth are
antibody drugs, with sales growing from
¥900 million in 2001 to ¥13 billion in
2002.
Meanwhile, the
actual businesses of the biomedical
support market are gradually being
developed into venture businesses. In
the research support fields such as
equipment and reagents, analysis systems
like the DNA sequencer, bioinformatics,
and various consigned services, in
addition to the conventional liquid
chromatography, have formed stable
markets.
Growth Opportunities
Genome-Based Drug Development
Facing intensifying competition for new
drug development, many domestic
pharmaceutical companies are forming
alliances and tie-ups with foreign bio
venture firms to make their development
efforts more efficient and also spread
their cost burdens and risks, while
stepping up their own research and
development setup. This is because in
today’s new drug development it is
becoming even more necessary to obtain
technologies and information for such
development by new approaches different
from conventional development methods,
and it is becoming more difficult to
cope only with one company’s
technologies and researchers.
Cell Therapy
Of the major companies involved in this
field, Kirin Brewery Co. introduced
technologies from Dendreon Corp., and
Takara Bio Inc. from Nexell
Therapeutics, both of the United States,
to develop cell therapy equipment.
Successful venture firms in this field
include Lymphotec Inc. and Medinet Co.
Regenerative Medicine
Of the large- and medium-size companies,
Terumo Corp. (in a tie-up with Diacrin,
Inc. of the U.S.) and Kyowa Hakko Kogyo
Co. (research being conducted on the
technology of mesenchymal stem cell
utilization with Keio University’s
School of Medicine) are active in the
market |
