A special study for the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) on new influenza pandemic, for which it has been estimated that up to 25% of the population (about 32 million people) will be infected, leading to 640,000 fatalities. We established a process of preparing countermeasures to a pandemic involving the active participation of businesses.
676 companies in Japan were surveyed on their pandemic preparations, and hearings were held with 30 companies in the USA and Japan who have been leaders in such preparations. Then, policies were established to promote widespread adoption of pandemic preparedness measures among businesses.

A "Measles Eradication Project" for the Ministry of Health, Labour & Welfare (MHLW) designed to help eliminate measles by 2012.
We devised strategies and coordinated the collaborations among interested parties, including education services companies, medical companies and 7 large corporations, to provide education activities, with posters and pamphlets, in an effort to promote awareness of the prevention of measles.

The MHLW works to promote the adoption of healthy lifestyles, but the goals and activities of past movements have been too numerous and diverse. There have not been effective programs or tools provided, so the activity has not been able to lead to a public movement to society. As part of a special study for the MHLW, we conducted with many leading companies on the promotion of healthy lifestyles (proper diet, exercise, not smoking) and devised strategies, in supporting the implementation of this project.

There is a long-term increasing trend in the number of suicides in Japan and one of the major causes is clinical depression. In 2007 the MHLW began a research project on supporting the recovery of depression patients. Along with Toyama prefecture, the Toyama Physicians Association and the Toyama Clinical Psychologists Association, with a goal of creating an environment in which those suffering from depression can return to independent life with no stigma. Awareness was raised to 51.2% and one of the newspaper advertisements received a silver medal from the Japan Advertisers Association in the Public Service announcement category.

There are several hundred thousand new stroke patients every year, and it is a disease for which there is still no effective treatment therapy.
We have established a joint venture company to develop a ground-breaking new medication therapy for stroke that makes use of the stem cells contained in human bone marrow.
The results of clinical research already completed in Japan indicate that the treatment is effective and safe. At present, the focus is on development site in the USA, where work is proceeding to start the clinical trials in accordance with FDA standards.

While developing the new medications for the treatment of stroke, we are concurrently developing the evaluation methodology to objectively measure the functional recovery after stroke.
This project is conducted jointly with the Keio University Tsukigase Rehabilitation Center. Video of the rehabilitation of stroke patients, and the images are evaluated by a third party who is not directly connected to the rehabilitation program. The preliminary results from this research indicate that this could become a valid method even for the assessment of general rehabilitation function recovery.

Besides working on developing new medications for treating stroke patients. NC Medical Research which we qre investing in is involbed in a joint research project with Keio University to develop bio-sensors to automatically detect the onset of symptoms, in order to build a total system to handle stroke.
The research so far has led to the establishment of basic technologies allowing discrimination of the status of the brain, using quantitative measurements such as electro-oculograms and electrical resistance of the brain.

Since 2009 Upstream Infinity, Inc which we are investing in have been involved in a development project for a new anti-cancer medication called "Hybrid peptide pharmaceuticals".
These medications make use of peptides with a high degree of penetration into cells and high associativity with the cell membranes, compared to conventional products. These are expected to allow safe and effective treatment even for patients for which existing therapies have not been effective.