For Immediate Release

Company name: DAIICHI SANKYO COMPANY, LIMITED
Representative: Takashi Shoda, President and Representative Director
(Code no.: 4568, First Section, Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya Stock Exchanges)
Please address inquiries to Toshio Takahashi, Corporate Officer in Charge,
Corporate Communications Department
Telephone: +81-3-6225-1126
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Fourth Sankyo Takamine Memorial Award Announced

Tokyo, December 6, 2006 -The Sankyo Foundation of Life Science Chairman Yasuhiro Hitosugi announced today that the Fourth Sankyo Takamine Memorial Award for fiscal 2006 is to be awarded to Dr. Masakatsu Shibasaki, Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo. The award ceremony is to be held on Tuesday, December 12 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. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo), a wholly owned subsidiary of DAIICHI SANKYO COMPANY LIMITED as well as 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, 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.

      This year's award-winning research paper was "The Creation of Asymmetric Catalysis for Innovation in Atom Efficiency-Toward the Development of a Pharmaceutical Synthesis of Tamiflu and other Substances" by Dr. Masakatsu Shibasaki. Dr. Shibasaki's research into catalytic asymmetric carbon-carbon bond forming reactions is both highly original and internationally acclaimed. Dr. Shibasaki is currently engaged in joint research with companies worldwide into catalytic asymmetric reactions for the large scale synthesis of pharmaceuticals for applications such as the enhancement of cerebral function, the reduction of urination frequency, and the treatment of ailments such as diabetes, cancer (camptothecin), or fungal infections.
      Dr. Shibasaki's research into asymmetric catalysis has also received worldwide attention for its application of extremely high atom efficiency reactions using hydrogen cyanide, a commonly used industrial chemical. The discovery that hydrogen cyanide itself can be used in the most important of these reactions, the catalytic asymmetric Strecker reaction of ketimines, was a major achievement in the advancement of atom efficiency.
      Dr. Shibasaki's recent development of a route for the catalytic asymmetric formation of the highly touted anti-influenza agent Tamiflu has also garnered attention because it eliminates the need for shikimic acid obtained from plants.