Hitoshi Endou, MD, Ph.D., Steps Down as Chairman & Representative Director and Takes Up the Title of Founder & Fellow of J-Pharma Co., Ltd.

June 25, 2020
J-Pharma Co., Ltd.

J-Pharma Co., Ltd. (Head office: Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan; President & CEO: Masuhiro (Max) Yoshitake) announced today that Hitoshi Endou. MD, Ph.D. has stepped down as Chairman & Representative Director and will take up the title of Founder & Fellow of the company.

Up until today, Dr. Endou had helmed J-Pharma since its establishment in 2005, leading as its Chairman & Representative Director an array of innovative research focusing on membrane transporters. Upon a management reorganization of J-Pharma with an eye toward the late stage clinical development of medicines modulating L-type Amino Acid Transporter 1 (LAT1), Dr. Endou decided to step down as Chairman & Representative Director and take up the title of Founder & Fellow of J-Pharma Co., Ltd. to guide basic research at the company.

J-Pharma will continue to focus on the research and development of its own proprietary, innovative medicines in areas with high unmet medical needs in collaboration with leading research institutions around the world and to prove the clinical usefulness of these medicines through strictly controlled clinical studies.

About J-Pharma Co., Ltd.
J-Pharma Co., Ltd. is a biotech venture focusing on the development of drugs targeting “transporters.” Transporters are proteins present mainly in the cell membrane responsible for transporting substances in and out of the cell. J-Pharma’s mission is to discover and develop drugs that target transporters, and our goal is to create a comprehensive care system that incorporates both diagnosis and treatment. Anti-cancer drugs targeting LAT1 including JPH203 and OKY-034 as well as LAT1-targeted PET diagnostics NKO-028 are currently in development.

For details, please visit http://www.j-pharma.com