Takara Bio Inc. (President & CEO: Ikunoshin Kato, Ph.D.) establishes joint venture company in July 2003 with Shigenori Mizumachi, M.D., (President of Mizumachi Group and Mizumachi Clinic (Shinjuku, Tokyo)) to further progress our cancer immunotherapy business.

Cancer is presently treated with combination of surgery operation, radiological therapy and chemotherapy by anti-cancer drug. Such treatment is, unfortunately, known to harm quality of life (QOL) in most cancer patients. As solution for associated adverse effects to patients, adoptive immunotherapy, which has fewer adverse effects, is now being widely recognized.

In one type of cancer immunotherapy "autologous activated lymphocyte therapy", lymphocytes obtained from patient are activated with anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody and then induced for proliferation by interleukin 2 (IL-2) in a cell culture bag. After being proliferated, activated lymphocytes are infused back to the patient, causing cancer cell destruction. Activated lymphocytes proliferated in large quantity are normally infused to patient six times in total in two-week interval. Because activated lymphocytes are derived from the patient, this therapy has characteristics of very low profile of adverse effects.
In "cytotoxic T cell therapy", another type of cancer immunotherapy, lymphocytes isolated from cancer patient are subjected to sensitization for several times with tumor tissues or peptide fragments of protein(s) specifically found in cancer patient. This sensitization produces T-cell population with cytotoxic activity specific to the cancer cell-derived antigen. The population of T-cell is then returned to the patient for destruction of cancer cells. As this therapy also uses patient-derived cells, it has very low profile of adverse effects.
This joint venture company provides Mizumachi Clinic with necessary techniques to start "autologus activated lymphocyte therapy" from this autumn. Along with sale of materials, the company also provides technical support business based on Takara Bio's know-how and patents of cell process techniques such as cultivation and activation of lymphocyte.
The company conducts sales of gas-permeable bag, in which cell is cultured in closed system for prevention of contamination, and rental business of facilities, wares and instruments required for cell process such as CytoMate for collection of cell after in vitro preparation, and technical support business of necessary operations for cell process. In addition, the company will launch support business for cell process techniques required for other types of immunotherapy including "dendritic cell vaccine therapy".

Outlines of new joint cooperation

Name of cooperation	:	Mizumachi-Takara Bio Inc.
Address	:	1-1-16 Sendagaya, Shibuya-Ku Tokyo
Amount of capital	:	50 million yen
Ownership	:	50% by Takara Bio Inc. and 50% by Shigenori Mizumachi, M.D.
Main business activities	:	research and development of cancer immunotherapy including activated lymphocyte therapy, its technical support and support business as to cell process technique.
Representatives	:	Ikunoshin Kato, Ph.D. (President: Takara Bio Inc.) and Shigenori Mizumachi, M.D. (President: Mizumachi Clinic)
Established	:	June 2003

About Takara Bio Inc.
Takara Bio Inc. is an innovative biotechnology company based in Shiga, Japan. As a world leader in biotechnology research and development, Takara Bio was the first company to market PCR technology in Japan and is also the developer of the RetroNectin™ reagent, which is a world-standard in gene therapy protocols. In addition to providing research reagents and equipment to the life science research market, Takara Bio has active research and product development activities in the fields of gene and cell-based therapy, and agricultural biotechnology; and is committed preventing disease and improving the quality of life for all people through the use of biotechnology. Through strategic alliances with other industry leaders, the Company aims to extend its reach around the world. More information is available at http://www.takara-bio.com.

For more information:
Corporate Communications
Takara Bio Inc.
E-mail: bio-ir@takara-bio.co.jp

This article is translated from press release in Japanese for your convenience.

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