Company Profile

Company name	Hoshi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Head office	TOC Building 2nd Floor, 7-22-17 Nishigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Japan 141-0031 TEL　81-3-3494-2241 FAX　81-3-3494-2295
Plant	Atsugi plant 3006 Kamiechi, Atsugi-shi, Kanagawa Japan 243-0801 TEL　81-46-285-0544 FAX　81-46-286-3014
Authorizations	[Head office] Type2-license for Drug Marketing Business License for Drug Wholesale Business License for Drug Retail Business License for Cosmetic Marketing Business [Plant] License for Manufacturing Confectionary Food Manufacturer (notification)
Capital	75 million yen
Shareholder	TOC Co., Ltd. (listed on Standard Section of Tokyo Stock Exchange): 100%
Officers and directors	<President> Takuo OTANI <Managing Director Regulator> Tokujiro MATSUMOTO <Managing Director> Osamu NAITO <Managing Director> Takahito Arai <Auditor> Hideo YAMAOKA
Bank reference	Mizuho Bank / Gotanda Branch /The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ,Ltd. / Gotanda Branch

History

Hoshi Pharmaceutical was founded in 1906 by Hajime Hoshi, father of the famous science fiction writer Shinichi Hoshi. The company grew steadily on sales of Ihichio-ru　compresses and became "Hoshi Pharmaceutical Company" in 1911. Since then, Hoshi Pharmaceutical has manufactured more than 100 kinds of medicines including Hoshi-Stomachic (familiar to many as Hoshi Red Can), with a sales network that expanded throughout the nation.
In a string of accomplishments, Hoshi Pharmaceutical started to develop a vaccine in Japan, and went on to succeed in the domestic production of alkaloids such as quinine and morphine.
In the Taisho period, building a state-of-the-art head office and plant in Gotanda, Hoshi Pharmaceutical had been called "The top pharmaceutical company in the East Asia".

Hajime Hoshi was also passionate about the pharmaceutical training of his staff.
The education department established in-house at the same time as the establishment of the company grew from Hoshi Pharmaceutical and Commercial School to Hoshi Pharmaceutical School and later became Hoshi Pharmaceutical University (even now, the current president of Hoshi Pharmaceutical Company, Takuo Otani, serves as trustee chairman of Hoshi University and continues to carry the torch the founding spirit).

When the sudden and untimely death of Hajime Hoshi after the Second World War forced the downsizing of Hoshi Pharmaceutical, Yonetaro Otani (founder of Hotel New Otani) rescued the company and made its operations to continue.

In 1970, Hoshi Pharmaceutical’s president Kohkichi Otani at that time began to study kumazasa – the striped bamboo leaf (sasa albo-marginata), built a system of joint research with Hoshi University to study the extract of this plant. He studied the pharmacological and immunological effects of kumazasa, identified the functionalities of kumazasa polysaccharides, and established a unique pyrohydrolysis technique for their effective utilization.

In recent years, the study group of Hoshi identified the revolutionary antiviral properties of kumazasa against the influenza virus at the animal level, and is gathering data for publication.

The group presented their results on immunology at the annual meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan, March 2009. In addition, together with Hoshi University, the group established a method for DNA classification of kumazasa and acquired a patent for the genetic authentication of kumazasa.

Currently, Hoshi Pharmaceutical manufactures and sells medicines, health care products and cosmetics including Kumazasa extract products.

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