Eisai's KAN subsidiary starts R&D at Kobe site

Japanese drugmaker Eisai says that it subsidiary, the KAN Research Institute, has begun operations at its new facility in the Kobe Medical Industry Development Project Site. The company added that the new base, which is located on Port Island in the city, is at the heart of the region's development project and is already the home of various fully-fledged medical and research institutions.

Eisai said that the group will focus on the discovery and development of innovative ideas and technology for use in pharmaceutical research, particularly utilizing cellomics (whole-cell biomarker analysis) as a means of assessing cell-cell interaction.

Eisai added that KAN will mainly target the field of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, in addition to oncology where it will conduct R&D in malignant tumors, metastasis and vascularization. The Tokyo-headquartered group also said that KAN will undertake research in immunology and inflammation, with particular emphasis on developing new approaches to the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease.