Core Technologies & Focus Areas

Life Science

By making the best use of our core technologies of organic synthesis and biotechnology, we are developing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and their intermediates. In particular, adapting to the current trends in the pharmaceutical industry, we have been focusing on the development of products in the biopharmaceutical field. Moreover, we are putting our efforts into developing new materials, such as health food materials, cosmetics, and so on.

R&D Topics	APIs and their intermediates, Biomaterials for cosmetics, Purification and separation for biological polymers

Contract Manufacturing of APIs and their intermediates

We have developed organic synthesis technologies, and biotechnologies such as fermentation and gene recombination have led us to expand our contract manufacturing business for APIs and their intermediates. We have also been supplying the pharmaceutical industry with a wide variety of chiral compounds derived from chiral epichlorohydrin.
We have also been promoting development in the field related to biopharmaceutical products and generic drugs.

Sugar Chain Related Compounds

Using enzymes produced through gene recombination technology, etc., we possess industrial manufacturing technologies for the production of saccharide-related compounds, mainly sialic acid. Sialic acid exists at the terminal ends of saccharide chains, as the glycoprotein on the cell surface, and it plays an important role in interaction between cells as well as in the infection process for viruses. That is why sialic acid is used in medicines for the treatment of infectious diseases. Furthermore in the field of biopharmaceutical products which has seen significant growth, we have been promoting the development of saccharide-related substances that play an important role in maintaining activity in vivo.

Structure of N-acetyl neuraminic acid (sialic acid)

β-Glucan

We produces β-1,3 -1,6 glucan using our unique fermentation technology from black yeast (Aureobasidium pullulans). This glucan has many healthy functions, such as enhancing the immune system of the digestive tract, decreasing stress hormones, increasing intestinal peristalsis and protecting the intestine surface from external stress. Moreover, glucan produced by DAISO in powder form (Aqua β Powder) is used as a health food material due to its excellent solubility and stability in water.
Currently, we are aiming to use glucan as a nano-dispersant for medicine and cosmetics.

Black yeast cultivation fluid (the fungus body measures approx. 10µm)