Kyowa+Kirin: Two companies with a common mission

This is the story of Kyowa Kirin, a company rooted in over a century of innovation and decades of therapeutic breakthroughs. 

It all began with two companies on a common mission, Kirin Pharma and Kiowa, each embedded in the science of fermentation, each grounded in traditional cultural values, each committed to improving life through innovation. 

Together they formed what today is Kyowa Kirin, a global specialty pharmaceutical company driven to improve the lives of patients, caregivers, and communities. 

Together they represent over 150 years of innovation and more than 70 years of experience in life sciences. 

Our story begins in 1870 in the Japanese port city of Yokohama, where American entrepreneur William Copeland founds the Spring Valley Brewery, grounding it in quality, innovation, and consumer understanding. 

From that humble beginning, the brewery grows into a global company. 

Its core distinctive product becomes Kirin Beer, named after the Kirin, an ancient mythical creature that symbolizes wisdom, justice, happiness, and good fortune. 

Company employees become experts in handling raw materials, optimizing taste and consistency, driving efficiency and distribution, and quality in packaging. 

They also develop a proprietary process for controlling fermentation that in time becomes invaluable in pharmaceutical development. 

In 1982, Kirin Pharma enters into a joint venture partnership with Amgen Biotech. The joint venture leverage is Amgen's emerging pharmaceutical expertise and Kirin's skill in fermentation processing and large-scale manufacturing. 

The partnership goes on to produce several breakthrough medicines that change the standard of care and treatment for patients with chemo induced anemia and other kidney diseases. The relationship proves beneficial to both organizations. 

Building on the success of the Kirin Amgen partnership, Kirin makes a founding investment in 1989 in the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, now a world renowned organization of more than 400 researchers. 

The partnership grows into a 35-year relationship, making it one of the world's most enduring alliances for academic private drug discovery. Co-located in one facility, the partners share research equipment, technology and ideas. 

Together they advance critical research on the immune system and new disease targets. 

In 2000, Kirin partners with Medarex to develop groundbreaking and proprietary transgenic mice, later called the KM mouse. It is used to produce fully human monoclonal antibodies. 

Meanwhile….. back in Japan, three alcohol distillers joined forces in 1949 to establish the Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Company, which means “harmony fermentation.” 

Their goal? To develop their own fermentation biotechnology aimed at saving and improving lives. 

In 1951, tuberculosis rages in Japan and Kyowa Hakko steps forward. It forms a life-saving partnership with Merck to mass produce the antibiotic streptomycin. This turns the tide against tuberculosis and helps to wipe out the disease in Japan at the time. 

In 1955, Kyowa Hakko wins international recognition after it develops the anti-cancer drug mitomycin C. It remains a treatment for cancer and is followed by more cancer therapy releases a year later. 

Expertise in fermentation drives breakthroughs in amino acid research, which transforms industries around the world. First, the team learns how to control the internal metabolism of a microorganism, which enables them to produce an amino acid. Then they produce L-Lysine, the second most widely used amino acid in the world, key in livestock feed. 

These and other related discoveries become market disruptors, enabling the low cost and mass production of essential and widely used amino acids. 

Through the years, Kyowa Hakko not only maintains its place as an innovator in antibiotic production, but also moves into the production of cardiovascular agents, gastrointestinal drugs, hormones, dermatological medicines, vitamins and advanced chemotherapeutics. 

In 1977 alone, the company files 45 drug related patents in Japan. 

The innovation of two becomes a powerful one. 

In 2008, Kirin Pharma and Kyowa Hakko form a strategic alliance that merges Kyowa Hakko Kogyo and Kirin's pharmaceutical division. 

They become Kyowa Hakko Kirin and later Kyowa Kirin. 

Today, Kyowa Kirin has more than 50 pharmaceutical products in market around the world, supporting patients and families in 44 global markets. 

The company includes 6,000 employees worldwide with more than 650 working in North America. 

It has five global research facilities and partners with dozens of advocacy organizations all over the world. 

In North America, Kyowa Kirin introduces 3 novel medicines within three years. 

As a company, Kyowa Kirin remains rooted in and guided by the richness of our founding culture. 

We are led by our 4 core values, commitment to life, innovation, integrity and teamwork. 

Kyowa Kirin is part of the Kirin Holdings Company, a global collection of more than 178 companies focused on three core domains, pharmaceuticals, Health Sciences, and food and beverage. 

Kirin Holdings and all of its individual companies shared the common purpose of improving lives and the communities they serve. 

We are driven to use our expertise to help improve the lives of people struggling with serious and rare diseases. 

Hi, my name is Jeremy Young. I'm the Director of Operations for Kyowa Kirin, the research laboratories located in California. 

I've been with the company about 20 years. I joined Kyowa Kirin around 2004. 

I was a recent graduate. I was looking for a job in the biotech industry. 

They were doing drug discovery with Antibody Research, which is the team that I joined when I first started. 

To be honest, I didn't know much about the company when I started except for the beer. 

I certainly knew and enjoyed Kirin beer.  

Kyowa Kirin was different to me though. In 2007, I had the I had the opportunity to go to Tokyo to visit our headquarters, but I didn't really have an idea on the size of the company. 

That was a really transformative trip for me, mostly because I then realized Kirin, its legacy and what it actually was.

There were billboards all around Tokyo for Kirin products. 

There were vending machines with Kirin products, including ones I've never heard of, soft drinks and coffees and all this kind of stuff. 

During that trip, I made it a little bit of a goal to try to taste as many new Kirin products as I possibly could, looking at stores and vending machines. 

I took the cans home, and I now have a collection of Kirin products here. 

Each time I went to Japan, I also got new Kirin products, and every time I'd bring back two or three to form the collection you see behind me. 

One thing that I learned about Kirin is that it wasn't just a beer company. They have a long, rich history in science and innovation. 

As early as the 1910s, they had an R&D section of their beer industry, which I was buddy and beer, and the 1940s they created was called the Kirin Science Institute. 

When Kirin entered into the pharmaceutical business, we were in the forefront of science in antibody and small molecule research. 

I'm very excited right now that the company is refocusing on selling gene therapy, going back to our roots of being on the forefront of science. 

So before that first trip to Japan, I had known a very small group of people here in California and we're about 17 employees. 

After that, it was very different. 

I immersed myself in the culture, their shared teamwork and law, this long history of the company that I'd recently been introduced to. 

And I really came back from that trip with this greater sense of who I was, what this company is, and feeling that I was really part of a large team. 

Some of the things that I would tell new employees about this company is one that we're not a big pharma and we don't, we have an intention to be a big pharma. 

We have our own niche in this world, focus on unmet medical needs. 

One other thing that I think makes us very different is our core values. They don't just write the core values, they really believe these core values. 

And then lastly, the sense of teamwork that we have here. Nothing's done in depending on what we all work together. We have 4 different laboratories around the world and we really pride ourselves on working together on a common goal. 

What drove a beer company to join the pharmaceutical business in the first place? 

We wanted to start R&D-led projects to create non-beer products. I think that was the start.  We were looking for ideas and ways to create added values. The Japanese Pharmacopoeia lists malt diastase. So we started a new project to extract diastase from sprouted perennial ryegrass.  

We built a new building behind our R&D laboratory, and we started our drug research there. 

What did you get out of the failures?   

Speaking from my own experience, projects based only on pros would always fail.  

You need to see the facts beyond the pros and also the cons on the other side.  

It’s important to find a tough themes that’s worth challenging, something that’s significant or possibly revolutionary in healthcare. We have to keep our eye out for it and keep taking up the challenge.  

How can we build such a corporate culture?  

We need the right environment and the right people who take on challenges.  

We also need a culture to appreciate those who keep challenging. As companies get bigger, they discourage unfruitful researches.  

But we need to recognize and respect the qualities each individual has, such as the passion to pursue something, inquisitive mind, and a daring spirit.  

I think scientific research basically starts with the individual. Of course, it will be a team effort to develop that idea, and the company will be giving direction, too. But when it comes to the original ideas, individual competence is what matters.  

We need to know their competence and activate their potential. For that, what we should do is to build a culture and keep the talent where they can shine.