HONG KONG – Imaging agents maker Imaginab Inc. has launched a wholly owned subsidiary – Imaginab Japan KK – in Tokyo, as part of a plan to grab a bigger share of the world's second largest pharmaceutical market.

"The establishment of a Japanese presence for Imaginab, is an important milestone for the company," said Christian Behrenbruch, co-founder and CEO of Imaginab. "Japan is a major market for imaging with positron emission tomography (PET) with a substantial and mature clinical installation footprint."

"There is a true and significant unmet need for technologies that are able to monitor and track the proliferation of all different kinds of cells," Behrenbruch told BioWorld Today. "Cell therapies are incredibly complex from a patient response, and therapy monitoring vantage and imaging is increasingly understood to offer tremendous value."

Shintaro Nishimura, executive director of the new branch, said he sees opportunities for the company's T-cell imaging products given recent favorable changes in the regulatory landscape for regenerative medicine and cell therapies. (See article in this issue.)

Nishimura was the vice president of the bioimaging research laboratories at Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma Inc. prior to joining Imaginab.

"His knowledge and relationships within the Japanese nuclear medicine and biopharmaceutical landscape is of tremendous benefit to the company and will serve us well as we progress regulatory dialog, partnership opportunities and clinical collaborations in Japan," Behrenbruch noted.

Imaginab works in collaboration with biopharmaceutical companies to design imaging agents as companion diagnostics for therapeutic antibodies. Imaginab has about 30 collaborations with global pharmaceutical companies for different types of cancer, immune or inflammatory diseases and neurodegenerative diseases.

The subsidiary brings Imaginab advantages in both the clinical setting and for partnering with Japanese biopharmaceutical companies, which have made a significant commitment to the use of molecular imaging in drug development.

"We have multiple collaborations with Japanese pharmaceutical companies, for example, our relationship with Astellas," Behrenbruch said. "Having a Japanese physical presence will certainly continue to facilitate new business development activities. We will also continue active discussions with radiopharmaceutical manufacturers to facilitate potential manufacturing and distribution [deals] in Japan."

Imaginab Japan will coordinate the Japanese arm of clinical trials, said Behrenbruch, adding, "Under certain limited circumstances it will also explore new clinical indications that may be relevant to Japanese and Asian disease populations."

Imaginab previously entered an agreement with Dainippon Seiki (DNS) Co. Ltd. to develop, validate and commercialize sophisticated automated radiochemistry systems.

Earlier this month, Imaginab completed a $21 million series B financing led by Merieux Developpement and syndicated with Novartis Venture Funds, Cycad Group and Nextech Invest.