Astellas Pharma Inc., located in Tokyo, Japan, is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical products. Astellas has approximately 15,000 employees worldwide with annual sales at the period on March, 2011 of 953.9 billion yen (current profit is 115 billion yen), which places Astellas in 3rd place domestically. Astellas is committed to becoming a global category leader by rapidly establishing a business model in urology, immunology & infectious diseases, neuroscience, diabetic complications & metabolic diseases and oncology. Astellas and UMN Pharma Inc. entered into a definitive agreement on August 16, 2010, please see here, to co-develop and exclusively commercialize in Japan UMN-0501 and UMN-0502, which are cell culture based influenza vaccine programs being developed by UMN Pharma.
In April of 2011, Astellas established a vaccine business corporate unit to build its global strategy for entering the vaccine arena.
API Co., Ltd. founded in 1907 as a beekeeping company expanded their business into contract manufacturing for dietary supplements and in 2004 started contract manufacturing for pharmaceuticals. API's annual sales at the period on August, 2011 were 26.8 billion yen (current profit is 1.6 billion yen). API's pharmaceutical plant located in Ikeda Town of Gifu Prefecture went online in March of 2005 as a state-of-the-art contract manufacturing plant for antibiotics. After obtaining the permission of the industry for an aseptic medicine in December of 2009, API entrusted the GMP conforming-medicine manufacturing to major pharmaceutical companies worldwide. API and UMN Pharma have signed an agreement forming a comprehensive business alliance focused on the formulation process of UMN Pharma’s influenza vaccine through the use of cell culture, please see here.
IHI Corporation, located in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading heavy industrial company and its annual sales at the period on March, 2011 were 1,187.2 billion yen (current profit is 51.4 billion yen). IHI provides aero-engine and space technology, pharmaceutical plants, industrial machinery, social infrastructure and physical distribution systems. IHI's pharmaceutical processing plant provides total solutions for engineering, procurement, construction, and start-up for plant construction with extensive experience in both domestic and international markets. IHI and UMN Pharma executed an agreement for the formation of a joint venture focused on the production of drug substance through the use of cell culture, for influenza vaccine, please see here. The manufacturing company “UNIGEN Inc.” was established in Akita City on April 1, 2011 as a joint venture with UMN Pharma Inc. to co-manufacture cell based influenza vaccine.
