The future of cancer treatment

Founded in 2001 as a drug discovery specialist, and with a subsidiary recently opened focusing on precision medicine, OncoTherapy is a growing international player in the field of cancer treatment.

Having emerged unscathed from the pandemic, company President and CEO Junichi Shimada describes the company’s mission as providing “a new, effective type of treatment for cancer patients with fewer side effects than traditional treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.”

In contrast to conventional treatments, which attack normal cells as well as cancer cells and often result in hair loss, nausea and blood disorders, OncoTherapy has been developing molecular target agents that only attack cancer cells, thus reducing the unfavorable risk of patients suffering from adverse reactions.

As well as molecular target therapy, the group is also carrying out genetic analysis to provide personalized medical treatment tailored to individuals.

The reason, as Mr. Shimada explains, is simple enough: “Genes differ from one person to another, so a drug that is effective for person A might be ineffective for person B. Our subsidiary, Cancer Precision Medicine (CPM), is providing genetic information to many medical institutions for drug selection and personalized immunotherapy, and has a track record of supporting R&D at pharmaceutical companies and research institutes by utilizing our genetic analysis technology.”

Later, asked if the firm is looking to form partnerships in overseas markets, Mr. Shimada responds with an unequivocal ‘yes’: “We have first-in-class assets, accumulated research experience, and a compound library that could be applied to other diseases.”

OncoTherapy’s aim, he says, is to use this library to re-analyse its data and make it valuable for future clients: “Our information and technologies can be expanded globally, so we are looking at high-potential global partners. Ultimately, our goal is to treat not just cancer, but other types of disease as well.”