Press Conference,
Masuji Sugata,
President, Toyama Chemical Co., Ltd.

The speech and Q & A will be in Japanese with English interpretation.

"Japanese Flu Treatment Breakthrough"

As winter approaches, so does the traditional influenza season. Recent years have seen the rise of new medicines to treat and prevent the debilitating virus taking hold. But the threat of mutations of the virus into human-transmissible avian influenza (bird flu) and other forms has researchers worried about drug resistance and side effects as the medicines are used more widely.

Japanese researchers are developing a new anti-influenza agent they say shows substantial promise in containing the virus, including the evolving threat from bird flu and other variants of the virus. They say it works in a different way to other existing treatments (such as Relenza and Tamiflu) and therefore offers an alternative path to development of drugs to fight emerging influenza threats.

Toyama Chemicals' president Masuji Sugata, accompanied by senior development executive Shunjiro Misumi, will appear at the club to explain work on their new compound, known as T-705. The drug has been under development for more than a decade, and is currently undergoing clinical trials in the United States and Japan.

Masuji Sugata, President, Toyama Chemical Co., Ltd.