Eisai (company)

Eisai Co., Ltd. (エーザイ株式会社, Ēzai Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese pharmaceutical company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It has some 10,000 employees, among them about 1,500 in research. Eisai is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a member of the Topix 100 and Nikkei 225 stock indices.

History

Nihon Eisai Co. Ltd. was established in 1941. In 1944, merger with Sakuragaoka Research Laboratory resulted in creation of Eisai Co. Ltd. The American subsidiary of the company, Eisai Inc., was established in 1995.

In 1996, Eisai received approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for Aricept (donepezil), a drug discovered in the company's labs and co-marketed with Pfizer. Three years later in 1999, the company received USFDA approval for Aciphex (rabeprazole), a drug co-marketed with Johnson & Johnson.

In September 2006, the company acquired four oncology products from Ligand Pharmaceuticals.

In April 2007, Eisai acquired Exton, Pennsylvania-based Morphotek, a company developing therapeutic monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and infectious diseases.