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The Program for Drug
Discovery and Medical
Technology Platforms

In life science research, the development of new drugs and medical technologies for combating diseases and helping to improve human health and wellbeing requires platform technologies for drug discovery and other medical research and development.

RIKEN launched its Program for Drug Discovery and Medical Technology Platforms (DMP) in 2010 to address such needs. This program aims to drive the development and clinical application of innovative homegrown Japanese pharmaceuticals and medical technologies by leveraging RIKEN’s rich life science research infrastructure. The program is aimed at identifying outstanding drug discovery and medical technology research being conducted in universities and research institutes, and promoting research and development in these fields by building bridges with private industry and medical institutions to take the outcomes of such research to the next stage.

The role of the Program for Drug Discovery and Medical Technology Platforms

Our drug discovery goal

The goal of DMP is to drive the development of products that go beyond currently available therapeutic drugs and treatments to address unmet medical needs through matching new drug targets with new drug discovery technologies.

Drug discovery map aimed at by the drug discovery / medical technology platform program

Drug targets

In the expectation that bioscience research by RIKEN, universities and other research institutes will identify new drug discovery targets, we aim to elucidate the causes of diseases and evaluate and analyze potential targets for drug discovery. We help to decide the course of research required for clinical application of new drugs and provide support for development plans and processes required for drug approval.

We focus our support on new treatments for disorders with low therapeutic satisfaction, and disorders that have been difficult to tackle owing to the lack of known drug targets (rare diseases, infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders, central nervous system disorders, etc.).

Drug discovery technologies

  1. Small-molecule
    drug discovery

    We have focused on enhancing our small molecule drug discovery platform ever since DMP was launched in 2010. We pursue small-molecule compound drug discovery for new drug targets by screening small-molecule compound libraries, synthesizing candidates from hit compounds, and collaborating with the Drug Discovery Units (within RIKEN research centers) that oversee research in protein analysis, advanced computational chemistry, and drug discovery molecular design that are RIKEN strengths.

  2. Cell therapies/
    regenerative medicine

    We support the development of game-changing new drug discovery technologies such as artificial adjuvant vector cell (aAVC) technology. aAVC has been attracting much interest recently as a next-generation technology for CAR-T therapy. Our R&D is aimed at developing such new cell therapies and regenerative medicine technologies.

  3. Protein and antibody drugs

    We support drug discovery based on RIKEN’s proprietary protein and antibody engineering technologies. We also collaborate with RIKEN Centers on R&D aimed at optimizing drugs that already exist but could be improved on.

  4. Other new modalities

    We actively explore innovative technologies that can be applied to drug discovery and examine synergies with drug targets.

Translational Research

Approaches to pharmaceutical R&D and the clinical application of outcomes have changed in recent years. The importance of open innovation has been recognized, and as the foundations for open innovation are being laid, expectations for new drug targets and drug discovery technologies are fanning interest in drug discovery that leverages the outcomes of research conducted by RIKEN, universities, and other research institutes.

There is a wide variety of medical technologies but taking small-molecule drug discovery as an example, the research process involves identifying disease targets and mechanisms, pinpointing and optimizing lead compounds that act on proteins related to the disease concerned, conducting non-clinical research on drug efficacy and safety, and finally, clinical trials. In the case of cell therapies/regenerative medicine, the process involves identifying specific cells or tissues and conducting research to confirm function, safety and so forth.

The role of the Program for Drug Discovery and Medical Technology Platforms is to connect the latest research outcomes of RIKEN research centers to drug discovery and medical technology platforms. Portfolio managers use matrix management to manage themes and projects and outsource commercialization to major pharmaceutical and startup companies.

Management Team

DMP is that a management team is organized based on the process of drug discovery research

GuideLine

We have guidelines (selection criteria) for the selection of drug discovery themes and projects to be supported.

For Partnering
and Aliance

Bussiness Development

The business development office handles alliances for collaboration with companies, universities, and external research institutes. It is also involved in licensing intellectual property rights to companies in collaboration with RIKEN Innovation.

Translational Research
Office

Mission of Translational Research Office (TRO), the competent team which consists of number of experts of translational research (TR) from industry, academic TR institutes, regulatory organizations, is to support projects establishing clinical development plan.

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