27-Oct-10

New Company Established to Enhance Biopharmaceutical-Related Businesses
Acquisition of GeneFrontier Corporation’s Business

Kaneka Corporation (headquarters: Osaka; President: Kimikazu Sugawara) has acquired the biopharmaceutical R&D support business of GeneFrontier Corporation (headquarters: Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture; President: Takashi Ebihara) with the aim of enhancing its biopharmaceutical1-related businesses. Kaneka has established a new, wholly-owned company of the same name, GeneFrontier Corporation (hereafter, “new GFC”), that has taken over all current GFC business. The new GFC will continue to provide the customized human combinatorial monoclonal antibody2 contract service that GFC has provided to date using the technology of MorphoSys AG (headquarters: Martinsried/Planegg near Munich, Germany), while at the same time launching new R&D support businesses and enhancing the development of novel drug discovery technologies for next generation biologics such as scaffold3.

1
Biopharmaceuticals are medical drugs made up of peptides, proteins, nucleic acids and other substances created by biotechnological means including microorganism culture, genetic modification, and cell fusion.

2
Antibodies are proteins that attach to and eliminate certain foreign bodies (antigens) within the body. This action is referred to as an antigen-antibody reaction. Antibodies are normally composed of a mixture of different antibody molecules, but monoclonal antibodies are produced by homogeneous cell populations created through multiplication from a single antibody-producing cell, and recognize only one specific antigenic determinant.

3
A scaffold is a molecule that is even smaller than low molecular weight antibodies and shows the same properties as an antibody. Scaffolds can be produced at low cost using microorganisms.

The biopharmaceutical-related market is growing rapidly in Europe and the United States, with the antibody drug segment that comprises its core expected to achieve annual sales of $49 billion worldwide by 2013. In June of this year, Kaneka formed a capital tie-up with Belgian biotechnology company Eurogentec S.A. (Province of Liège, Belgium) and launched its full-scale entry into biopharmaceutical-related business.

The new GFC possesses drug discovery technologies for next generation biologics and a network of Japanese antibody research organizations and pharmaceutical companies that the former GFC built through its biopharmaceutical-related businesses. Moving forward, Kaneka will conduct R&D that
combines these new GFC resources with its own bioproduction technologies built up over the years.
Kaneka will seek to create a structure for providing total support through its Group companies to
address broad needs including support for the discovery of potential new drugs and production of
discovered biopharmaceuticals.

Kaneka positions healthcare as a priority field, and intends to build synergy with Eurogentec and the
new GFC to establish a proactive, client-driven biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing business
model, and achieve annual sales in biopharmaceutical-related businesses of about 30 billion yen in
ten years.

GeneFrontier Corporation
Representative: Takashi Ebihara
Headquarters: Todai-Kashiwa Venture Plaza #308,
5-4-19, Kashiwa-no-Ha, Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture
Founded: February 14, 2003
Capital: 10 million yen
Business: Provision of biotechnology-based products and services
Development of antibody drugs and next-generation antibody drugs
Employees: 8

Outline of the New Company
Company name: GeneFrontier Corporation
Representative: Haruki Tanabe
Headquarters: Todai-Kashiwa Venture Plaza #308,
5-4-19, Kashiwa-no-Ha, Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture
Founded: October 13, 2010
Capital: 10 million yen
Shareholder: Kaneka Corporation (100%)