National Institute of Technology and Evaluation, Astellas Pharma, Chugai Pharmaceutical to Collaborate in Searching Microorganisms in Vietnam.

Tokyo, Japan, Nov 2, 2005 - (JCNN) - The National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (NITE) announced on November 2 that it has launched an industry-government project for searching microorganisms in Vietnam through collaboration with Astellas Pharma and Chugai Pharmaceutical.

Specifically, the three partners will send researchers to Vietnam, who will stay there from November through December and collect samples in the central region. Then, they will isolate microorganisms from the samples using the facilities of the Vietnam National University in Hanoi.

The isolated organisms will be transferred to Japan under a treaty Japan signed with the Vietnamese government concerning the protection and continued use of genetic resources. They will be provided to Astellas Pharma and Chugai Pharmaceutical, and they will strive to identify lead compounds for drug discovery.

Upon successful patent registration or commercialization resulting from findings, the companies will pay Vietnam a part of the profits they will generate through commercial activities.

This project is part of the "Construction of a Genetic Resource Library of Unidentified Microbes Based on Genome Information" project organized by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

Source: JCN http://www.japancorp.net

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