Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma

Takeda Kasei Co., Ltd. was established in 1940 by Chobei Takeda & Co., Ltd. (present-day Takeda Pharmaceutical Company) and Nippon Kasei Chemical Co. Ltd. (present-day Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation) and built its first plant in Higashi-Yoshitomi-mura, Fukuoka Prefecture. The company changed its name in 1952 to Yoshitomi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. in 1946 and listed on Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges in 1949.

The Blood Plasma Corporation of Japan was established in 1950 with head office and plant in Osaka. This company changed its name to Green Cross Corporation in 1964.

Green Cross Corporation was acquired by Yoshitomi Pharmaceutical in 1998, changing its name to Welfide Corporation in 2000. The founders of Green Cross Corporation included war criminals such as Kitano Masaji who performed torture and experimentations on humans in the Japanese military's notorious Unit 731 during World War II. These crimes were recognized by the UN as extreme "crimes against humanity".

In 1901 Motosaburo Tanabe established a pharmacy in Tokyo, which was incorporated in 1921 as Motosaburo Tanabe Shoten, changing its name in 1943 to Tokyo Tanabe Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd.

Nippon Tar Industries was established in 1921, becoming Mitsubishi Chemical Industries, Ltd. in 1952. This company established a business alliance with Tokyo Tanabe Pharmaceuticals Co. in 1981, and changed its name to Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation following the 1984 merger with Mitsubishi Petrochemical Co., Ltd.

Mitsubishi-Tanabe Pharmaceuticals developed the first BET inhibitor molecules.[2][3]

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation and Tokyo Tanabe Pharmaceuticals Co. merged formally in 1999 and formed Mitsubishi-Tokyo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., to take over the combined pharmaceutical operations of the two companies.

Mitsubishi-Tokyo Pharmaceuticals and Welfide Corporation merged in 2001 to establish Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation, and this company joined again with Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation to create Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation in October 2005.

In August 2014 the company announced it had agreed to collaborate with AstraZeneca to leverage the pair's strengths, expertise and assets on diabetic nephropathy, in a bid to develop high quality drugs much quicker than working alone. According to the National Institute of Health, 60% to 70% of diabetic sufferers in the U.S. alone suffered from nerve disorders related to diabetic nephropathy. The three-year research agreement has the objective of creating new treatments to replace expensive and limited options currently in place, mainly being dialysis or kidney transplantation.[4]

In July, 2017, the company acquired Neuroderm for $1.1 billion.[5]

On 27 February 2020, the company was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and is now described as a member of the Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Group [6]

• (in English) Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma web site