Topics R&D Committee "R&D Needs of Member Companies" released
The R&D Committee of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Japan (PMAJ) has been continuing discussions on the drug discovery ecosystem and has implemented several measures. In this issue, we introduce one of the measures, "Disclosure of R&D needs of member companies".
At the February 2024 press conference of the President of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Japan (PMAJ), Chairman Hiroaki Ueno explained that in order to continuously create innovative drugs, it is necessary to create a virtuous cycle of two elements: strengthening drug discovery capabilities and proper evaluation of innovation. In particular, he pointed out the importance of the so-called "drug discovery ecosystem," a place for organic collaboration with multiple players, and the four key elements necessary for this: (1) practical application of fundamental drug discovery technologies, (2) sustainable start-up business and development, (3) enhancement of new modality manufacturing capabilities, and (4) development of an infrastructure for data utilization. (4) Establishment of a foundation for data utilization.
The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Japan (PMAJ) R&D Committee focused on (1) practical application of fundamental technologies for drug discovery, and in the course of organizing issues and discussing measures, noted that academia and start-ups have voiced their concern that they are having difficulty finding referrals for seeds and technologies they possess. As a contribution that the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Japan (PMAJ) can make, we planned the centralized disclosure of R&D needs of the member companies of the R&D Committee on the PMAJ website, and on April 1, 2024, the Japanese version of the website was opened to the public ahead of its Japanese version.
The site can be accessed from the top page of the website via the R&D Committee's webpage.
As of September 2024, the Japanese version of the site contains information on 28 companies, and the English version, which was released at the end of July, contains information on 23 companies. This section includes information on external collaboration sites operated by each company, their focus areas and drug discovery needs, and contact information for the person in charge ( Figure 1 ).
Figure 1: Part of the R&D needs site of R&D Committee member companies
In FY2024, we plan to update the information every quarter. We hope that this initiative will serve as a catalyst for the creation of as many partnerships as possible. We hope you will visit our website and make use of it.
| R&D needs of R&D Committee member companies https://www.jpma.or.jp/information/research/RD_needs/ |
 |
 |
Drug discovery needs of R&D Committee member companies https://www.jpma.or.jp/english/reports/research/RD_needs/ |
||
| Japanese version | English version |
( Nobuyuki Tanaka, Chairman of the Research and Development Committee)