Materials Supporting Cutting-Edge Business
In new business and growing fields, innovation is required for technologies and materials. The JSR Group continues a wide variety of bold attempts in "strategic fields," which are expected to grow in the future. We enhance the value of products by conducting thin film processing for existing excellent materials and precision processing for the surfaces of thin films. Also, we make active applications of our high-functional materials and polymer technologies. By so doing, while anticipating ever-changing social needs while we continue to contribute to society.
Life Sciences and Materials
High precision is required for the research and development of medical products. At the same time, it takes a long time to launch a medicine into the world as a finished product. We believe that material technologies cultivated by the JSR Group can support such a creation process. We contribute to the creation of medicines, by offering materials and technologies needed at each phase of medicine creation, as well as providing materials for diagnosing the efficacy of medicines and for manufacturing medicines. Moreover, we provide particle products for diagnosing diseases and susceptibilities. The products are used in a wide range of fields from clinical examinations to genetic analyses.
■China
The diagnostic market in China shows strong growth due to several environmental changes, including the expansion of the upper and middle classes in coastal areas, as well as the spread of medical services to rural areas as a result of government measures. With this background, in February 2012, JSR established J & W Beijing Biotech Co., Ltd., a joint venture with Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co., Ltd., a diagnostic drug manufacturer based in Beijing, China. By making effective use of our business knowhow, particle materials technologies, and China-wide sales network cultivated so far, we would like to further expand into the business of diagnostic intermediates.
■Austria
Strategic Investment for Expanding Our Biomedical BusinessIn November 2011, JSR made a strategic investment in BIA Separations, an Austrian specialist company in separation and purification in the biomedical field. The company is the world's only developer and manufacturer of short monolithic chromatographic columns used for the purification of vaccines and DNA and antibody based medicines. This alliance will enable technologies owned by the two companies to be utilized in order to provide more effective purification technologies to the market, and thereby significantly contribute to the state-of-the-art medical field.
■Japan
Establishment of JSR Life Sciences Corporation
PresidentJSR Life Sciences Corporation
Nobutaka Tani
In February 2012, JSR Life Sciences Corporation was established as a new company for the development, manufacture, and sales of biomedical materials.
In the biomedical field, there are now two major trends at the global level. One is the need for high technologies to cure diseases for which treatment methods have not yet been established. The other is the need to deal with the expansion of quantitative demand found in many parts of the world, such as China. To respond to these needs promptly, there is a limit to what can be achieved by research and development and business operations promoted only in Japan. In the JSR Group, research and development have been conducted globally, transcending the boundaries between segments. Utilizing this advantage, JSR Life Sciences Corporation acts as a practical headquarters in the Group's biomedical business, and consolidates the Group's medical materials resources, striving for an even better management efficiency.
We are proud of our "materials power" specific to us as a chemicals manufacturer, such as our superb polymer technologies. We believe that based on such assets, we can develop business that can never be realized by any other companies. In the mid- to long-term view, we would like to make alliances with outside organizations with a wide diversity of expertise and make investments in venture companies. By so doing, we strive to increase the variety of our products and demonstrate our collective ability.