is a Japanese

pharmaceutical company The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate sympto ...

headquartered in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan. It has some 10,000 employees, among them about 1,500 in research. Eisai is listed on the

Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. It is the third largest stock exchange in the world by aggregate market capitalization of its listed companies, and the largest in Asia. It had 2,292 listed co ...

and is a member of the

Topix 100 , commonly known as TOPIX, along with the Nikkei 225, is an important stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Japan, tracking all domestic companies of the exchange's Prime market division. It is calculated and published by the T ...

and

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 indices In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an index that measures a stock market, or a subset of the stock market, that helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calculate market performance. Two of the ...

History

Nihon Eisai Co. Ltd. was established in 1941. In 1944, merger with Sakuragaoka Research Laboratory resulted in creation of Eisai Co. Ltd. The American subsidiary of the company, Eisai Inc., was established in 1995. On November 25, 1996, Eisai received approval from the United States

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...

(USFDA) for Aricept ( donepezil), a drug discovered in the company's labs and co-marketed with

Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfizer ...

. Three years later in 1999, the company received USFDA approval for Aciphex (

rabeprazole Rabeprazole, sold under the brand name Aciphex, among others, is a medication that decreases stomach acid. It is used to treat peptic ulcer disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and excess stomach acid production such as in Zollinger–Elli ...

), a drug co-marketed with

Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1886 that develops medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer packaged goods. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company i ...

. In September 2006, the company acquired four oncology products from

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Ligand Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company located in San Diego, California. Founded in 1987 as Progenix Inc., the company went public in 1992. Initially focused on developing its own drugs, a period of turbulence in the early 2000s cul ...

. In April 2007, Eisai acquired

Exton, Pennsylvania Exton is a census-designated place (CDP) in West Whiteland Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its population was 5,622 at the 2020 census. The Exton Square Mall and Main Street at Exton are both located within Exton along wi ...

-based Morphotek, a company developing

therapeutic monoclonal antibodies Monoclonal antibody therapy is a form of immunotherapy that uses monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to bind monospecifically to certain cells or proteins. The objective is that this treatment will stimulate the patient's immune system to attack those ...

for the treatment of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and infectious diseases. In December 2007, Eisai acquired

MGI Pharma MGI may refer to: * Martín García Island Airport, in Argentina * McKinsey Global Institute * Miss Grand International, a beauty pageant franchise based in Thailand * Mouse Genome Informatics Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI) is a free, online datab ...

, a company specializing in oncology, for US$3.9 billion. This event brought Dacogen ( decitabine), Aloxi ( palonosetron), Hexalen ( altretamine) for ovarian cancer, and the Gliadel Wafer (

carmustine Carmustine, sold under the brand name BiCNU among others, is a medication used mainly for chemotherapy. It is a nitrogen mustard β-chloro- nitrosourea compound used as an alkylating agent. Description Carmustine is an orange-yellow solid medica ...

) for brain tumors into the Eisai product portfolio. In 2009, Eisai received the Corporate Award from the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) for the development of

Banzel Rufinamide is an anticonvulsant medication. It is used in combination with other medication and therapy to treat Lennox–Gastaut syndrome and various other seizure disorders. Rufinamide, a triazole derivative, was developed in 2004 by Novarti ...

Locations

Eisai Co., Ltd. is based in

, Japan, while its American subsidiary Eisai Inc. is headquartered in

Nutley, New Jersey Nutley is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 30,143. What is now Nutley was originally incorporated as Franklin Township by an act of the New Jersey Legisla ...

. Eisai maintains

medical research Medical research (or biomedical research), also known as experimental medicine, encompasses a wide array of research, extending from "basic research" (also called ''bench science'' or ''bench research''), – involving fundamental scientif ...

headquarters in Nutley as well as at locations in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, the Research Triangle in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, and

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

where the Eisai Research Institute and the Genetics Guided Dementia Discovery (G2D2) institute are based. The company has manufacturing sites in Japan, North Carolina (USA), Maryland (USA), Bogor (Indonesia), Suzhou (China), Tainan (Taiwan), Visakhapatnam (India) and Hatfield, Hertfordshire (UK). Eisai has marketing operations in 19 European countries as well as the Asia-Pacific region.

Products

Some of the key products that Eisai produces or markets with partners include: *Aciphex/Pariet (

) - Gastroesophageal reflux disease *Actonel ( risedronic acid) - Osteoporosis (Japan) *Aloxi ( palonosetron) - Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting *

Aricept Donepezil, sold under the brand name Aricept among others, is a medication used to treat dementia of the Alzheimer's type. It appears to result in a small benefit in mental function and ability to function. Use, however, has not been shown to ...

( donepezil) - Mild to moderate dementia for Alzheimer's Disease patients *Banzel/Inovelon ( rufinamide) - Seizures related to Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome *Belviq ( lorcaserin) - Obesity *Dayvigo ( lemborexant) - Insomnia *Fragmin (

dalteparin Dalteparin is a low molecular weight heparin. It is marketed as Fragmin. Like other low molecular weight heparins, dalteparin is used for prophylaxis or treatment of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism to reduce the risk of a stroke or ...

) - Deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism *Fycompa ( perampanel) - Partial-onset seizures *Halaven (

eribulin Eribulin, sold under the brand name Halaven, is an anticancer medication used to treat breast cancer and liposarcoma. The most common side effects include fatigue, nausea, hair loss (alopecia), constipation, certain nerve damage causing weakness ...

) - Metastatic breast cancer *Iomeron ( iomeprol) - Non-ionic contrast medium *Methylcobal ( methylcobalamin) - Peripheral neuropathy *Myonal (

eperisone Eperisone (formulated as the eperisone hydrochloride salt) is an antispasmodic drug. Eperisone acts by relaxing both skeletal muscles and vascular smooth muscles, and demonstrates a variety of effects such as reduction of myotonia, improvement o ...

) - Muscle relaxant *Selbex (

teprenone Teprenone (or geranylgeranylacetone), sold under the brand name Selbex, is a medication used for the treatment of gastric ulcer Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is a break in the inner lining of the stomach, the first part of the small intestine, o ...

) - Gastric ulcers and gastritis *Zonegran ( zonisamide) - Partial-onset seizures *Gliadel Wafer (

) - Treatment for Brain Tumors *Lenvima (

lenvatinib Lenvatinib, sold under the brand name Lenvima among others, is an anti-cancer medication for the treatment of certain kinds of thyroid cancer and for other cancers as well. It was developed by Eisai Co. and acts as a multiple kinase inhibitor ag ...

) - Thyroid Cancer or Kidney Cancer

Aricept

Aricept accounted for 40% of Eisai's revenue as of March 2010. The main competitor to Aricept is a generic formulation from Ranbaxy Labs. Eisai has pursued development of alternative formulations in order to extend the marketable lifetime of the product.

References

External links