Eisai's Outstanding Contribution to Neuroscience Research and Entrepreneurship Honoured by University College London (UCL)

HATFIELD, England, May 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

PRESS RELEASE NOT FOR U.S. MEDIA 

Company wins prestigious 'UCL Enterprise Partner of the Year 2014' award 

Eisai was announced as the 'UCL Enterprise Partner of the Year 2014' at the 7th annual UCL Awards for Enterprise held last night in London, UK. This award recognises Eisai's commitment to exploring new ideas and paths to drug discovery in neuroscience through 'Open Innovation' with the world-leading academic institution UCL.

Professor Stephen Caddick, Vice-Provost (Enterprise) at UCL commented on the win, "We are delighted to announce Eisai as our Enterprise Partner of the Year 2014. The company's vision, collaborative nature and innovative spirit is helping create shared value not only for our corporate partnership, but also for the next generation of people living with neurological conditions."

Eisai and UCL have a long-standing partnership to further neuroscience research. The organisations have also recently formed a major drug discovery alliance to investigate radical new ways of treating neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. This collaboration maximises UCL's world-class, early stage and translational research in neurodegenerative diseases and Eisai's expertise in drug discovery, development and bringing new agents to market in an effort to increase benefits to patients.

The alliance with UCL forms a major part of Eisai's 'Open Innovation' initiative to explore external ideas and paths to drug discovery through partnership. Eisai provide drug discovery know-how in the form of assay development capabilities, medicinal chemistry expertise and development resources. If successful, UCL will receive milestone and royalty payments on therapies brought to market through the collaboration.

"Eisai is extremely proud of the 'Open Innovation' we are building through our partnership with UCL. This prestigious award recognises all of the hard work that continues to go on throughout both organisations to push the boundaries of drug discovery research and bring new solutions to people with neurodegenerative conditions," said Dr Lynn Kramer, President, Eisai Neuroscience and General Medicine Product Creation Unit.

The 'UCL Enterprise Partner of the Year 2014' winner's film can be viewed here:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise/about/awards/2014/eisai/

Notes to Editors  

About the UCL Awards for Enterprise  

First introduced in 2008, the prestigious UCL Awards for Enterprise recognise the efforts and accomplishments of UCL's innovative and entrepreneurial academics, students and partners. They highlight UCL as a leading hub of innovation and commercial activity, while bringing together academics with businesses and investors.

For further information please visit: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise/about/awards/2014

About UCL Enterprise 

UCL Enterprise provides UCL's structures for engaging with business for commercial and societal benefit. It includes three units: UCL Advances, UCL Business and UCL Consultants, along with corporate and industrial partnerships. Together, they provide access to the capabilities and resources of the UCL community to help businesses start, grow and develop.

About UCL  

Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. It is among the world's top universities, as reflected by performance in a range of international rankings and tables. UCL currently has 27,000 students from almost 140 countries, and around 11,000 employees. Its annual turnover is nearly £1 billion.

For further information please visit: http://www.ucl.ac.uk or follow UCL on Twitter @uclnews

About Eisai  

Eisai is one of the world's leading research and development (R&D) based pharmaceutical companies and we define our corporate mission as "giving first thought to patients and their families and to increasing the benefits health care provides," which we call human health care (hhc).

Eisai concentrates its R&D activities in three key areas:

• Neuroscience, including: Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, pain and weight loss
• Oncology including: anticancer therapies; tumour regression, tumour suppression, antibodies, etc.
• Vascular/Immunological reaction including: thrombocytopenia, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease

With operations in the U.S., Asia, Europe and its domestic home market of Japan, Eisai employs more than 10,000 people worldwide. From its EMEA Knowledge Centre in Hatfield, UK, Eisai has recently expanded its business operations to include Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Russia and Oceania (EMEA). Eisai EMEA has sales and marketing operations in over 20 markets, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia and the Middle East.

For further information please visit our web site http://www.eisai.co.uk

Date of preparation: May 2014
Job code: Corporate-UK2027