Health

Now, there are more than 30,000 types of diseases in the world for which effective treatment methods and drugs have yet to be found. Regenerative medicine is drawing attention as the potential solution. Regenerative Medicine is to bring advances in cell therapy in restoring the function of diseased parts by regenerating damaged organs or tissues with artificially cultured cells and tissues (somatic cells, somatic stem cells and iPS cells*1). In addition, it is expected to simplify and increase certainty of drug discovery, by utilizing iPS cells in its process.

Fujifilm Group is marketing “cellnest” (recombinant peptide or RCP), an extracellular matrix essential for cell culture developed with Fujifilm’s collagen technology accumulated in photography business. In addition, in 2014 we acquired Japan Tissue Engineering Co., Ltd. (J-TEC), the only company in Japan marketing autologous cultured epidermis and autologous cultured cartilages at that time. In May 2015, we proceeded to acquire Cellular Dynamics International, Inc. (CDI), a leading company in iPS cell development and manufacturing, and established Cellular Dynamics International Japan Co., Ltd. (CDJ) in October for sales operations in Japan. These steps have enabled the Group to set up the framework to expand the business domain extensively in areas of iPS cell-based drug development, cell therapy covering stem cells, somatic stem cells and iPS cells. Although iPS cell-based therapy has yet to be applied in actual practice in the world, we plan to start clinical trials for the treatment of agerelated macular degeneration that causes blindness (in collaboration with the National Eye Institute (NEI)*2), as well as the development in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, heart diseases, and other conditions. As the top runner in regenerative medicine, we plan to contribute to the further industrialization of regenerative medicine by generating synergy between our high-performance material technologies, engineering technologies, CDI's iPS cellrelated technologies and know-how, and J-TEC's manufacturing technologies for therapeutic cells.

*1 Somatic cells, somatic stem cells and iPS cells: Somatic cells reproduce only for specified purposes and do not differentiate into others. Somatic stem cells are capable of differentiation into organs in a certain range. iPS cells have the ability to differentiate into a variety of organ cells and can multiply infinitely.

*2 NEI: Organization conducting research and supporting treatment of eye diseases, an arm of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the medical research organization under the United States Department of Health and Human Services.