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South Korean biotech and healthcare companies are rapidly expanding their business in Japan due to latter’s deregulatory policy.
South Korean biotech and healthcare companies are rapidly expanding their business in Japan due to latter’s deregulatory policy.

 

South Korean biotech and healthcare companies are rapidly expanding their business in Japan. For example, Macrogen recently established Macrogen Japan in Kyoto to provide a genome analysis service in the local market, which is expected to show a rapid growth led by the Japan Agency for Medical Research & Development. In this context, Macrogen Japan is running four units of the HiSeq X 10.

Medipost set up a joint venture in Japan to release its stem cell therapy product Cartistem. At present, Medipost is discussing the schedule of clinical trials with the Pharmaceuticals & Medical Devices Agency. MediTox is supplying anti-aging products in the Japanese market via MDT International. Tego Science exhibited its anti-wrinkle cell therapy product TPX-105 in this year’s Bio Japan.

Japan implemented a new law regarding regenerative medicine last year so that cells used for regenerative medicine purposes can be authorized even without three-phase clinical trials once their safety is confirmed.

Chabiotech is currently running Tokyo Cell Clinic, a cell therapy hospital equipped with an advanced cell culture lab capable of immunotherapy using NK cells. Cell culture and injection in a hospital is illegal in South Korea and is legal in Japan. “We founded the hospital in Japan in order to test our techniques that cannot be tested in South Korea,” the clinic explained, adding, “We are planning to run our first clinical trials regarding immune cell and stem cell technologies here in Japan.”

 

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