Japan's Sumitomo to establish regenerative medicine and cell therapy joint venture

Japan's Sumitomo Chemical Co. and Sumitomo Pharma have studied restructuring measures to accelerate the development of regenerative medicine and cell therapy business by maximising the Sumitomo Chemical Group’s synergies. These measures included establishing a new jointly-owned company by the end of fiscal 2024.

Sumitomo Chemical and Sumitomo Pharma concluded agreements concerning a joint venture that is to undertake the research and development for the Sumitomo Chemical Group’s regenerative medicine and cell therapy business. This new entity RACTHERA Co., Ltd. is scheduled to start operations on February 1, 2025.

The company is stepping up efforts to enhance its advanced medical solutions businesses, including regenerative medicine and cell therapy as well as its CDMO business.

Sumitomo Pharma is a front runner in the development of cell therapy, particularly regenerative medicine and cell therapy using iPS cells, and is pursuing multiple programs. The company is developing an iPS cell-derived cell therapy for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, the first of its kind in the world, in Japan and the United States. The other programmes include its clinical study of an iPS cell-derived cell therapy for the treatment of retinal pigment epithelium tear, which started in Japan in June 2023, and its clinical study of an iPS cell-derived cell therapy for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa, which started in the United States in November 2024. It has also already started sales of a regenerative medicine, RETHYMIC (allogeneic processed thymus tissue-agdc), a one-time regenerative tissue-based therapy for pediatric congenital athymia, in the United States in March of 2022.

Sumitomo Chemical and Sumitomo Pharma expect that making full use of Sumitomo Pharma’s technologies and advanced knowledge developed over the many years of experience in the research and development of iPS cell-derived cell therapies while also leveraging Sumitomo Chemical’s expertise in industrial engineering, analysis and evaluation, and quality management will maximize the Group’s synergies in this field. The companies will thus strive to speed up the development of the Group’s regenerative medicine and cell therapy business and accelerate its globalisation, and seek to scale it to a business worth a maximum of approximately 350 billion yen by the late 2030s.