The 146th Annual Meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (Osaka)

Organizer: Yusuke Kono (Kobe Pharm Univ.), Kazushi Okada (Shionogi Pharma)

Co-sponsored by:
The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan,
The Academy of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Japan

In recent years, drug discovery ventures have come to play a vital role in new drug development. In particular, drug delivery system (DDS) technologies that have revolutionized the fields of nucleic acid medicines and cell-based therapeutics owe much to the outcomes of basic research in academia. Consequently, drug discovery ventures in the DDS field are expected to become increasingly important in the future. In Japan, the number of university-originated ventures has been increasing annually since 2014. Nevertheless, the number of drug development originating from academia has not increased, indicating that academic seeds have not yet been fully utilized in pharmaceutical development. To address this issue, in this symposium, we will first hear about experiences and recent activities from academic researchers who founded ventures to bring their research outcomes into practical use. Following that, industry researchers will introduce their initiatives and case studies in supporting drug discovery ventures. Through these presentations, we aim to clarify the challenges of translating academic DDS technologies into practical applications and to discuss future prospects.