- Business
- Sumitomo Pharma Co., Ltd. Sumitomo Pharma Co., Ltd. engages primarily in the research, development, manufacture, and sale of pharmaceutical products targeting oncology, psychiatry and neurology, rare diseases, regenerative medicine, and cell therapy; cardiovascular and diabetes treatments; as well as infectious diseases, urological disorders, and women's health issues. The company offers prescription drugs for conditions including Parkinson's disease, depression, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, overactive bladder, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, systemic fungal infections, pruritus, advanced prostate cancer, uterine fibroids, arrhythmia, and angina pectoris; atypical antipsychotics; antiepileptics; carbapenem antibiotics; Fabry disease therapies; and cultured thymus tissue for pediatric congenital athymia, with additional operations in food ingredients such as polysaccharides and seasonings, veterinary medicines, diagnostic reagents, and chemical materials like pharmaceutical excipients, personal care products, coatings, and electronic materials. Founded on May 14, 1897 and headquartered in Osaka, Japan, with key offices in Tokyo and global presence in North America, China, and other international markets, Sumitomo Pharma operates through Japan, North America, and other segments, employing approximately 3,098 consolidated staff as of September 2025. Recent developments include a co-promotion agreement with Novo Nordisk Pharma Ltd. in October 2025 for Wegovy, a GLP-1 receptor agonist for obesity treatment in Japan, building on their July 2025 Ozempic co-promotion for type 2 diabetes; a March 2025 share purchase agreement with Marubeni Corporation to transfer its Asian pharmaceutical sales business excluding Japan via a company split, with Marubeni acquiring 60% for approximately 45 billion yen and an option for the remainder post-2029; and an April 2025 completion of the sale of subsidiaries Sumitomo Pharma (China) Co., Ltd. and Sumitomo Pharma Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. to Marubeni Global Pharma Corp. as part of ongoing restructuring; alongside advancements such as submission in August 2025 of a manufacturing and marketing authorization application for allogeneic iPS cell-derived dopaminergic neural progenitor cells in Japan, completion of the CRAFT regenerative medicine manufacturing facility, organizational realignments, and selection of its novel TLR7 vaccine adjuvant for the CEPI library.