Medicinova Inc., of San Diego, appointed Yoshio Ishizaka to its board. Ishizaka received a degree in law from the Hitotsubashi University in Japan, and has 50 years of experience in marketing and product development with Toyota Motor Corp. in Europe, the U.S. and Japan. Read More

Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Jerusalem, was issued a patent by the Intellectual Property Department of Hong Kong for "Methods and Compositions for Oral Administrations of Proteins." The patent is related to the oral administration of insulin. Read More

Eddingpharm Co. Ltd., of Hong Kong, and Immutep SA, of Orsay, France, said they started production of Immutep's Immufact IMP321, a LAG-3Ig fusion protein at Wuxi Apptec facilities in China. Wuxi, a contract research organization, initiated process development for the lead product using Immutep's cell line, while Immutep is providing full technical support. Immutep and Eddingpharm will develop the product in combination with first-line chemotherapy in metastatic cancer. Read More

SHANGHAI – Simcere Pharmaceutical Group made headlines in December when it announced plans to go private and delist from the NYSE. As the first Chinese biopharmaceutical company to go public in the U.S. the longtime generics maker – and growing innovative drug developer – is used to taking on pioneering projects, and looks to be at it again. Read More

HONG KONG — The creation of two new genetically modified mouse models of Alzheimer's disease by Japanese neuroscientists could revolutionize research into the debilitating neurodegenerative disease and lead to the development of badly needed new treatments. Read More

HONG KONG – Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd., the second largest pharmaceutical in Japan, has partnered with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), in a collaborative drug discovery program to develop therapeutics and diagnostics to treat degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and frontotemporal dementias (FTD) Read More

TOKYO – Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is counting on a program of "three arrows" to continue revitalizing his country's economy. The first two arrows in his quiver are massive monetary easing and targeted fiscal support. The third, and possibly the most important arrow in the long term, is a series of structural reforms. High up on the list of the reforms is a somewhat radical shift in the way Japan approaches medical and biotechnology research. Read More