The leaders of Chugai Pharmaceutical are tired of their company not getting its due. At the J.P. Morgan Annual Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, they’re working hard to change that while also seeking out new science to bring into their storied drug discovery operation.
The purpose for Chugai to present at the event is to “be acquainted” with the broader biopharma ecosystem, Osamu Okuda, Ph.D., president and CEO of the Roche subsidiary, told Fierce Biotech on Tuesday evening. “The name of Chugai is not well recognized,” he said, even though some of their products are household names in the industry.
Chugai invented Roche’s blockbuster hemophilia drug Hemlibra (emicizumab) and the small molecule GLP-1 orforglipron, which Eli Lilly licensed in 2018 and has since become one of the buzziest drug candidates in recent memory. An FDA approval decision for the weight loss pill is expected by this spring.
The Roche-owned company was even ahead of the curve on protein degraders, an ascendant area of interest for numerous pharma giants. Hitoshi Iikura, Ph.D., Chugai’s head of R&D, told Fierce that the company’s “recycling antibody” approach, where antibodies can bind to a target multiple times instead of just once, achieved the effects of protein degradation about a decade ago. The first such antibody to be approved by the FDA was Enspryng (satralizumab) in 2020 for neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder.
The Japanese pharma is hunting name recognition at JPM because its mid- to long-term growth strategy, which involves shifting away from Chugai’s history as an internal R&D powerhouse to bring in more external partners, according to Okuda.
“There are lots of lots of amazing technologies and modalities and sciences becoming available,” the chief exec said. Because of that, Chugai believes it may be “better for us,” to be prudent and collaborate by combining that external tech with in-house expertise “to create even more unique modality technologies for patients around the world.”
An example of the kind of pacts Chugai would like to forge is the pharma’s recent team-up with California biotech Rani Therapeutics. The collaboration will see Chugai package one of its rare disease antibodies inside Rani’s oral drug delivery system, the RaniPill.
The goal is to “make antibody therapeutics orally available, which is usually impossible,” Okuda told Fierce. Rani’s capsule houses “tiny needles” that pierce the intestinal tract to pump antibody into the bloodstream, he explained.
In addition to turning its drug discovery machine onto more engineered antibodies, which are the pharma’s bread and butter, Chugai’s other specialties are small molecules—like orforglipron—and macrocyclic peptides. The company is keen to explore gene therapies and antibody-drug conjugates through partnerships, as despite its antibody prowess, Chugai doesn’t have any solid linker technology of its own.
“We just announced the collaboration with Araris [Biotech], which has a very good linker technology, so we can create a very unique, good ADC,” Okuda said. That deal could top $780 million if its milestones are met.
But no matter how many new partners Chugai adds to its roster, a certain Swiss Big Pharma will always hold a special place for them.
“The best partner for us is always Roche,” Okuda said. “It's been working really well for the last 23 years, and that is the basis of our business.”
Picking winners
While Chugai’s name might not be well-known in the U.S., the company is a frequent scientific partner in its native country. Hemlibra originated from a research collaboration with Nara Medical University, while the first-in-class anti-interluekin-6 antibody Actemra (tocilizumab) was developed with Osaka University, Iikaru told Fierce.
“Chugai historically has a strong collaboration with Japanese academia,” the R&D leader said. But one academic team-up recently rocketed above the others thanks to the Nobel Assembly in Sweden.
Japanese immunologist Shimon Sakaguchi, M.D., Ph.D., was one of three winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine last October for his discovery of regulatory T cells. These rare immune cells patrol the body for self-reactive T cells and disarm them, protecting against autoimmune diseases.
Sakaguchi is working with several biopharma companies to turn his award-winning discovery into new medicines, including Chugai.
“We have been working with Professor Sakaguchi for a long time,” CEO Okuda said. “We have been waiting for him to receive the Nobel Prize.”
The illustrious partnership centers on an antibody called ROSE12, which is designed to bind to CTLA-4 on the surface of regulatory T cells inside tumors and deactivate them, granting T cells free rein to attack the tumor. Chugai is currently running the molecule through a phase 1 study in solid tumors.
Chugai’s partnerships with Japanese academics are oriented around the sharing of knowledge and technology, the company’s leaders told Fierce, rather than the spinning out of startups as is more common in the U.S. But the pharma has launched an American style of investment, unveiling the Chugai Venture Fund in Boston in 2023 with $200 million.
While the fund’s mandate is to look for innovation globally, the main focus of investment area is the U.S. and Western European countries, Chugai’s Chief Financial Officer Iwaaki Taniguchi told Fierce. The fund’s most recently announced investment supported the $65 million launch of Bay Area biotech Dualitas Therapeutics, which is developing next-gen bispecific antibodies.
While Chugai is operating in 2026 with global vision, the century-old company will always have an eye on Japan. Unlike neighboring China, which has risen into a global biopharma leader, the industry in Japan is still “emerging,” Okuda said.
“The Japanese government is significantly supporting to grow the drug discovery ecosystem,” he added, part of a plan that began under former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and has continued through to his newest successor, Sanae Takaichi.
Takaichi, the first woman to be prime minister in Japanese history, has outlined 17 key areas of economic growth for the nation, with biotechnology and drug discovery included as two of them.
“Japan is so important for us,” R&D chief Iikura told Fierce, highlighting the 2023 opening of a new laboratory in Yokohama that he said has hired more than 1,000 researchers. “That's why the strength in the Japanese ecosystem is also very important for us.”