Tanabe Research Labs reopens San Diego facility
Focuses on biological drugs for the treatment of autoimmune diseases
Tanabe Research Labs USA (TRL) has begun new operations at its facility in San Diego, California, with a focus on biological drugs for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.
The firm began its new activities in May with the appointment of three new senior executives: Masaki Yamada, chief executive; Toshihiro Hosaka, senior vice president; and Roland Newman, VP and chief scientific officer.
Yamada joined the predecessor to Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation (MTPC), TRL's parent corporation, in 1985 and currently manages research projects, portfolio and alliances within MTPC. Yamada spent the 1991–92 fiscal year at TRL as a visiting scientist from Japan.
Hosaka earned holds a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from Chiba University in Japan and was a visiting scholar at Stanford University in 1998. He entered the pharmaceutical industry in 1993 as a medicinal chemist and project manager for the predecessor to MTPC.
Newman has more than 30 years of experience in biochemistry, immunology and molecular biology research and business development in both academic and commercial settings. He is the co-inventor and co-developer of Rituxan and other antibody based therapeutics.
In its new configuration, TRL will focus on antibody and biological approaches to target specific immune cells and soluble factors, as well as investigating new methods for modulating immune cell functions. Its ultimate goal is to discover and develop potential biological drug candidates for therapy in autoimmune diseases. TRL expects to hire a number of new scientists in the coming months and to be fully functional by the fourth quarter.
Commenting on the re-launch of TRL, Yamada said: ‘We believe the new focus on biologicals will be very rewarding and we look forward to TRL becoming a significant player in this area.’
Newman added: ‘TRL will not only build in-house research programmes, but [also] establish collaborative relationships with other companies and academic research organisations to further its goals of identifying preclinical leads for further development. TRL will continue to re-focus its efforts in immunology in the short term and expand into other areas, including oncology, in the future.’
TRL is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of MTPC, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Japan.