InnovationStriving to create life-changing “Only-one value” that brings smiles to patients

Guided by the key phrase - “Provide “Only-one value” to Patients. This is our Dream,” Kyowa Kirin’s R&D Division continues to take on a wide range of challenges with the aim of bringing smiles to people battling with medical conditions. We are harnessing the power of our diverse team of researchers with a passion for innovation to create unique, life-changing value.

The R&D Division is also working to foster “Our R&D Spirits” - our vision for what each person in the global R&D organization should be and wants to be, based on the Core Values of the Kyowa Kirin Group. By promoting the vision, we aim to motivate employees to take on new challenges while respecting independent thought and actions.

In next-generation antibody treatments, we are using proprietary bispecific antibodies to create new antibody drugs, aiming to create first-in-class treatments that bring together technology and biology. In 2021, a number of bispecific antibodies in our pipeline moved smoothly into the preclinical stage and we made good progress with several late-discovery pipeline themes. Also, leveraging our strengths in proprietary antibody research, we continue to work on the development of advanced antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). In August 2021, we concluded a licensing agreement with Synaffix B.V. to use its cutting-edge proprietary ADC discovery technology platform, allowing us to accelerate the targeted development of ADCs for specific conditions. While our ADC pipeline is currently in the preclinical stage, we are working to strengthen the Group’s R&D pipeline by creating multiple groundbreaking therapeutic candidates, including in the late-discovery phase.

Meanwhile, in the field of AI drug discovery, we are using AI to accelerate the cycle of discovery from hypothesis proposal to concept verification.
Working with InveniAI LLC, our AI technology partner since 2018, we continue to work on identifying novel targets for our next-generation antibody technology and explore new disease applications. We also expanded our longstanding relationship with InveniAI in December 2021 with a new joint research agreement to use its AI technologies in drug discovery across multiple therapeutic areas. By combining InveniAI’s strengths in the digital field with our technologies and by deepening ties between our respective research teams, we aim to create a new generation of innovative drug candidates.

We have formulated Personnel Management Policy in R&D, a shared policy for the R&D Division to realize the objectives of “Our R&D Spirits.” The policy clearly defines the roles every employee needs to fulfill in the R&D Division for all job-types and teams, whether research, engineering or development. We have also established an awards system to encourage actions and share approaches that embody “Our R&D Spirits.” The five awards, which all bear the “Our R&D Spirits” motto, are “Be the Best in Science Award,” “Passion for Innovation Award,” “Challenge Award,” “Teamwork Award,” and the “Grand Prize.” We will add a new award from 2022, “Our R&D Spirits Special Award,” to recognize employees who take on bold challenges without fear of failure. The aim is to foster an organizational culture that is even more conducive to tackling new challenges.