Solutions to Medical Issues

More and more diseases are becoming susceptible to medical treatment today, raising life expectancies all over the world, with preventive medicine and early diagnosis taking on increasingly important roles in sustaining long, healthy lives. At the Eiken Group, we view promoting the adoption of these two approaches as vital to the search for solutions to medical issues. The diagnostics offered by the Eiken Group already play a familiar part in the medical lives of millions, with applications ranging from prenatal gynecological examinations, examination of newborn babies for metabolic abnormalities and health checkups for children to cancer screening and screening for lifestyle diseases. As a pioneer in clinical diagnostics, the Eiken Group is proud to develop and circulate products and technologies serving advanced medical needs. Through these efforts, the Group is determined to contribute to the development of medicine and achievement of healthy lives for people everywhere while capturing new business opportunities and attaining sustainable growth.

Eiken Chemical adopted the immunochemical method (latex agglutination method) for its fecal immunochemical test (FIT) reagents in 1987 and also developed the world’s first fully-automated FIT analyzer in 1989. We have achieved top market share in Japan and received recognition for the performance and knowledge backing our products all over the world. They are now used in colorectal cancer screening programs in many countries. The goal of cancer screenings is early detection of the disease for early treatment which reduces mortality rates. Taking FIT regularly enables early detection of colorectal cancer and has a scientifically-based potential to reduce mortality rates. When colorectal cancer is detected and treated in the early stages, the 5-year survival rate is over 90%, and the possibility of recovery is high. The colorectal cancer screening programs using our reagents and analyzers contribute to global early detection of this disease.
In addition, we sell reagents for “stratified gastric cancer risk assessment,” blood testing to investigate Helicobacter pylori infection and stomach lining atrophy factors which can increase the likelihood of future gastric cancer development, and we are working to familiarize this testing method inside and outside of Japan.

To contribute to the solution of medical issues globally, the Eiken Group must constantly change and advance, never clinging to the conventional boundaries of clinical testing. Through open innovation in partnership with government, academia and other industrial companies, the Eiken Group is developing companion diagnostic drugs for individually tailored treatments, creating POCT platforms for the primary care field, and advancing into new fields such as risk diagnostics and wearable health devices. In this way the Group is pursuing new approaches in diagnostic testing to support the health of people worldwide. In 2021 the Group concluded an agreement with Illumina, Inc. of the United States to use that company’s next-generation sequencer, the Miseq™ Dx system, to advance the development of companion diagnostic systems. Going forward, the Eiken Group will continue its vigorous pursuit of solutions to medical problems, including through partnerships such as these.

The dysentery that swept Japan after the war. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which emerged in 2003. The new strain of influenza of 2009.

The mission of the Eiken Group is “to safeguard the health of people worldwide.” Since its establishment in 1939, the Eiken Group has contributed to Japan’s public health and communicable-disease control by developing clinical testing reagents in partnership with medical practitioners. In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world, the Group quickly drew on its accumulated technology and experience to develop and sell genetic testing reagents. It did so using the LAMP method, a gene amplification technology developed exclusively by Eiken Chemical. To respond to heavy demand for clinical testing reagents, the Group is ramping up production capacity, striving to ensure stable supplies. Today, as infectious diseases continue to spread, the role of genetic testing is proving more crucial than ever. Economic development, global warming and rising mobility due to globalization make accurate diagnosis vital in the fight against not only COVID-19 but also a host of infectious diseases arriving from overseas. Mindful of its responsibilities as a producer of clinical testing reagents, the Eiken Group is developing not only testing reagents to tackle the infectious diseases of the future but also equipment and devices. In so doing, the Group is advancing the field of clinical testing, contributing to a society made resilient through the power of testing.