Founding Vision

Our Founding Spirit

When I founded JCR in 1975, we were a team of six working from a small factory in Kobe. We began with pharmaceutical raw materials, but my aspiration was to create medicines with our own hands for patients waiting for treatment. That belief became the heart of JCR, and it remains our starting point today.

Our path was never easy. Our work in urokinase and later in human growth hormone each brought significant challenges, but we kept moving forward by asking what would truly serve patients. The introduction of recombinant DNA technology became a major turning point, opening the way for us to advance into a new stage as a biopharmaceutical company.

Over time, I came to see more clearly that our role is to solve the world’s most complex healthcare challenges. As we marked our 50th anniversary, we gave clearer expression to that commitment through the values that have guided us from the beginning, Putting people first, Forging our own path, Always advancing, and Committed to excellence. for patients and their families, we will continue to create value in our own way, evolve with the times, and aspire to standards recognized around the world.

Today, we have built capabilities that span research through manufacturing, while advancing proprietary technologies such as J-Brain Cargo®. We are also expanding globally as we work to make a difference for more patients around the world.

None of this would have been possible without the many people who have supported and believed in us. But our journey is not complete. Guided by our founding spirit, we will continue to take on diseases with no established treatment and create value for the next generation.

Carrying JCR Forward

JCR’s journey began with founder Shin Ashida’s unwavering commitment to creating and delivering medicines for patients. For 50 years, that commitment has shaped JCR as a company that puts patients first, approaches manufacturing with integrity, and values people. These principles remain at the heart of JCR.

As we move into our next stage of growth, we will carry this founding spirit forward while continuing to evolve. Toru Ashida will carry our founding commitment into the future, preserving what makes the company unique. Hiroyuki Sonoda, who has helped create the technologies that underpin JCR’s growth, will further deepen our research and development with science at its core and lead the creation of globally relevant value.

JCR’s strength lies in the integrated cycle we have built across research, manufacturing, and commercialization. By creating value through research, bringing it to life through our own manufacturing capabilities, and reinvesting in future innovation, we have developed proprietary technologies and a pipeline that support long-term growth.

With our founding spirit at the core, and by bringing together our scientific expertise and management capabilities, JCR will continue to pursue sustainable growth and create value for patients around the world as we move into our next chapter.