Otsuka Pharmaceutical
Otsuka is a Japanese pharmaceutical group whose oncology portfolio centres on haematology: intravenous busulfan (Busulfex) and decitabine (Dacogen).
Overview
Otsuka Pharmaceutical, part of Otsuka Holdings, is best known for CNS medicines but markets Busulfex (busulfan) for transplant conditioning and Dacogen (decitabine) for myelodysplastic syndromes in the US, and Dacogen for elderly acute myeloid leukaemia in Europe through Janssen. It also develops Lonsurf outside Japan with Taiho, a group company.
Scorecard
All companies- approved products +12
- modalities +4
- regions +2
- registry trials +30
Busulfan is one of the oldest cancer drugs. As a tablet it controlled chronic myeloid leukaemia before imatinib; as an infusion it is used to clear the bone marrow before a stem cell transplant.
Decitabine (Dacogen) is an infusion that loosens the chemical silencing of genes in myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukaemia, helping the bone marrow work again. An oral version combined with cedazuridine has its own record.