Adrenaline, a hormone released when a person feels excited, is also used as a medicine. Researchers in Japan were the first in the world to successfully extract adrenaline, and Dr. Jokichi Takamine, the first president at Sankyo Co., Ltd. (Sankyo), one of the two companies that eventually became Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. (Daiichi Sankyo), was the leader of the group that did it.
A researcher and entrepreneur who tried new things in various fields
Born in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, in 1854, Jokichi Takamine entered the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo (presently the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Engineering), where he specialized in chemistry. After graduating at the top of his class, he was sent on a government scholarship to study in the U.K. for three years, during which time he was exposed to the cutting-edge chemical industry. Upon his return to Japan, he worked as a senior official at the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. Learning about ingredients for artificial fertilizers in the U.S., he proposed a plan for producing fertilizers in Japan. At the age of 33, together with Eichi Shibusawa, he founded Tokyo Jinzo Hiryo (now Nissan Chemical Corp.), contributing to the development of Japan’s agricultural industry.
Around the same time, Dr. Takamine also embarked on a project to study the utilization of malted rice in producing whisky. Once the project was successful, he obtained a patent on the technology in the U.S. and moved there to launch a research and development company. Shortly after, based on his knowledge on rice malt, he discovered Taka-Diastase, a digestive enzyme. (The behind-the-scenes story on the discovery of Taka-Diastase can be found here).
After helping to establish Sankyo, he advanced into fields outside of drug manufacturing with Matasaku Shiobara, a Sankyo senior managing director. They first gained an exclusive license in Japan on the patent for Bakelite (a phenol resin) from Bakelite Corp. of the U.S., for industrialization, which represents the beginning of the synthetic resin business in Japan. In terms of his involvement in businesses in different fields, Dr. Takamine established Toyo Aluminum to refine aluminum and Kurobe Railway to transport materials and tourists bound for spa treatment, while securing the right to use the water from the Kurobe River running through Toyama Prefecture.
In his personal life, he married Caroline Fields Hitch, an American woman whom he met while traveling back and forth between Japan and the U.S. in a time when telephones in homes were rare and few Japanese were living in the U.S. Dr. Takamine was always ahead of his time in paving the way for a new world.
Succeeding in adrenaline crystallization ahead of top-ranked researchers
One of Dr. Takamine’s remarkable achievements in the field of medicine and pharmaceuticals is the crystallization of the hormone adrenaline. In the 1890s, adrenaline was found to increase blood pressure, have a tonic effect on the action of the heart, and control bleeding. Competition in its research intensified amid increased expectations that a successful extraction and crystallization would lead to the mass production of medicines. Leading researchers in the world competed to extract adrenaline but were unsuccessful.
Dr. Takamine was 46 years old when he was continuously working on the research and improvement of Taka-Diastase. He was also a member of the adrenaline research team set up by Parke-Davis (now Pfizer), which was marketing Taka-Diastase. However, he was not a specialist in that area and the research was not going well. To cope with the situation, he appointed Keizo Uenaka, a pharmacist he met through his wide network, as his associate.
Mr. Uenaka tenaciously conducted experiments in a series of fruitless attempts. Though Takamine had to often leave during the research, at times Mr. Uenaka stayed for days at a time in a basement room conducting hundreds of experiments. After six months, he found something shining in a test tube, which he had been too exhausted to wash and had left sitting overnight. It was crystallized adrenaline.
Dr. Takamine obtained a patent on the adrenaline and introduced Mr. Uenaka as a co-researcher at medical conferences to promote their achievement. The discovery of how to crystallize adrenaline was significant. It has become a medicine commonly available at hospitals and it is still widely used worldwide as an emergency injection treatment for anaphylactic reactions.
Dr. Takamine’s enthusiasm for innovation, which lives on today within Daiichi Sankyo, helped create a lifesaving medicine that is still in use more than 100 years later.