For Immediate Release

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Fifth Sankyo Takamine Memorial Award Announced

Tokyo, July 12, 2007 - The Sankyo Foundation of Life Science Chairman Yasuhiro Ikegami announced today that the Fifth Sankyo Takamine Memorial Award for fiscal 2007 is to be awarded to Dr. Hiroaki Mitsuya, Professor at Kumamoto University Graduate School of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
The award ceremony is to be held on Wednesday, December 5 at the Hotel Okura.

The Sankyo Takamine Memorial Award was established in November 2003 as part of the Foundation's 20th anniversary and in memory of the research work of Dr. Jokichi Takamine, who was the first president (March 1913-July 1922) of Sankyo Co., Ltd., a former subsidiary of DAIICHI SANKYO COMPANY LIMITED as well as a parent company of the Sankyo Foundation of Life Science.

Since November 1983, the Sankyo Foundation of Life Science has provided support for innovative research in the life sciences, including two-year research grants, facilitating exchange programs in which foreign academics are invited to Japan while Japanese researchers work overseas, the sponsorship of international symposia, and the establishment of two-year Sankyo fellowships.

Research and Development into the Treatment of AIDS

After graduating from Kumamoto University's School of Medicine in 1975 and completing post-graduate work, Dr. Mitsuya joined the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1982 and began research on the pathogenesis of immunodeficiency stemming from HTLV-1 virus infection. At the time, Dr.Mitsuya was employing advanced methods in cloning CD4-positive cells, the target of HTLV-1. Although his research generated significant results, it was around that time that cases of HIV and AIDS were being reported as a global epidemic. Starting in 1984 Dr. Mitsuya, along with other researchers at the NCI, began research and development into the treatment of the HIV disease.

In 1985, Dr. Mitsuya's research led to the discovery of azidothymidine (AZT), dideoxyinosine (ddI) and dideoxycytidine (ddC), drugs with formidable potency against HIV. This discovery contributed to both preclinical and clinical development of these drugs and in turn led to the world's first AIDS drug. He laid the groundwork for AIDS therapy in cell metabolism as it relates to anti-HIV reverse transcriptase inhibitor activity and identified the underlying mechanisms of HIV drug resistance. Dr. Mitsuya also made a direct contribution to advancing research and development into entry inhibitors and the clinical implementation of the FDA-approved (2006) protease inhibitor darunavir.

For a single researcher to have such an enormous impact in one field of therapeutic study is unprecedented. For that reason, the Takamine Memorial Award is a fitting acknowledgement of Dr. Mitsuya's remarkable achievements.