is a Japanese

pharmaceutical Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, 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 ...

and

biotechnology company Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists in the field are kn ...

under the

Kirin Holdings is a Japanese beer and beverage holding company. It is known for brands such as Kirin Beer, Kirin Lemon, Mets, and Gogo no Kōcha. The predecessor of the company, the Japan Brewery Company, was founded in Yokohama in 1885 by William Henry Tal ...

, and is among the 40 largest in the world by revenue. The company is headquartered in

Chiyoda-ku , known as Chiyoda City in English,
." ''City of Chiyoda''. Retrieved on December 28, 2008. is a S ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

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 is a price-weighted index, operating in the Japanese yen, Japanese Yen (JP¥), and its compone ...

stock index.

History

On July 1, 1949 the forerunner of the present company, Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd. is established. The company merged with Kirin Pharma Co., Ltd., on October 1, 2008 to form Kyowa Hakko Kirin with plans to spin off the bio-chemical business into Kyowa Hakko Bio. On July 11, 2014, the KHK subsidiary, ProStrakan Group (based in Scotland), acquired Archimedes Pharma from the

Novo Nordisk Foundation The Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) is an international enterprise foundation focusing on medical treatment and research. In 2023, the foundation had a net worth of DKK 1,114 billion (167 billion), making it the wealthiest charitable foundation ...

for $394 million In 2019, Kirin Holdings acquired 95% stake in Kyowa Hakko Bio which is Kyowa Kirin's subsidiary corporation. 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 GmbH 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 t ...

. In October 2023, Kyowa Kirin acquired a Britain-based biopharmaceutical company, Orchard Therapeutics, for $478 million.

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 (AD ...

using a CHO cell line in which ''

FUT8 Alpha-(1,6)-fucosyltransferase is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''FUT8'' gene. This enzyme belongs to the family of fucosyltransferases. The product of this gene catalyzes the transfer of fucose from GDP-fucose to N-linked type comp ...

'' 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 type 4 (CCR4). It is given by injection into a vein. The most common side effects include rash, infusion-rel ...

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, spinal cord and retina. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity o ...

medicines **

Immunology Immunology is a branch of biology and medicine that covers the study of Immune system, immune systems in all Organism, organisms. Immunology charts, measures, and contextualizes the Physiology, physiological functioning of the immune system in ...

Allergy Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, are various conditions caused by hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include Allergic rhinitis, hay fever, Food allergy, food al ...

medicines **

Nephrology Nephrology is a specialty for both adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (renal physiology) and kidney disease (renal pathophysiology), the preservation of kid ...

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 Etymology, etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγ ...

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 Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the Proteinogenic amino acid, 22 α-amino acids incorporated into p ...

nucleic acids Nucleic acids are large biomolecules that are crucial in all cells and viruses. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomer components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. The two main classes of nucleic a ...

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

Vitamins Vitamins are organic molecules (or a set of closely related molecules called vitamers) that are essential to an organism in small quantities for proper metabolic function. Essential nutrients cannot be synthesized in the organism in suff ...

, minerals,

peptides Peptides are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. A polypeptide is a longer, continuous, unbranched peptide chain. Polypeptides that have a molecular mass of 10,000 Dalton (unit), Da or more are called proteins. Chains of fewer t ...

and

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

References

External links

* {{authority control Pharmaceutical companies Biotechnology companies of Japan Pharmaceutical companies based in Tokyo Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Companies in the Nikkei 225 Pharmaceutical companies established in 1949 Pharmaceutical companies of Japan 1949 establishments in Japan Japanese brands