Japanese pharmaceutical firm Eisai Co. has announced the completion of a major renovation of its Tsukuba Research Laboratories, which is a part of strategic investment to execute Eisai’s medium-term business plan “EWAY Future & Beyond”.

Eisai implements research and development activities under the DHBL (Deep Human Biology Learning) drug discovery and development system in its efforts to create new drugs based on innovative and efficient next-generation drug discovery concepts.

Tsukuba Research Laboratories is positioned as a core facility in the DHBL drug discovery and development system. This renovation seeks to accelerate knowledge circulation by connecting each researcher with patients, other members within the laboratories, other research sites across the world, and external researchers based on its key concept “Human Connected Laboratories: Laboratories Connecting Human and Human, and Data, and the World.” Total investment on this major renovation was 8.5 billion yen.

In favour of generating natural communication between researchers across different therapeutic areas on a daily basis, workspaces for biology researchers and data scientists are allocated on the same floor, and likewise workspaces for chemistry and pharmacokinetics/analytical researchers are placed on nearby floors to foster new connections and knowledge exchange. Further creative solutions are implemented in laboratories, including collective arrangement of structural openings and devices. These designs facilitate data driven drug discovery through knowledge exchange.