Tokyo, Japan, September 7, 2011 -- Eisai Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Tokyo, President & CEO: Haruo Naito, "Eisai") announced today that it has entered into a collaborative development agreement with SFJ Pharma Ltd. ("SFJ"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of SFJ Pharmaceuticals, LP., II (Location: California, the United States, President: Robert F. DeBenedetto), in an effort to further accelerate the late-stage clinical development of its new drug pipeline by effectively leveraging external financial resources.

With a rich late-stage clinical pipeline, Eisai will effectively leverage internal resources as well as build a new partnership scheme under which it accepts funding from external parties to conduct pivotal Phase III studies for promising new drug candidates in order to push forward with numerous development programs simultaneously and as quickly as possible.

As part of this partnership scheme, Eisai has entered into a collaborative development agreement with SFJ to conduct Phase III studies with E7080 (lenvatinib) in thyroid cancer. Under this agreement, these late-stage studies will be conducted by Eisai and wholly funded by SFJ, with Eisai paying SFJ milestone payments only if E7080 obtains regulatory approval. If and when the compound is approved, all commercial rights shall remain with Eisai.

Under the previously established strategic collaboration with Quintiles, Eisai has been advancing multiple candidate anticancer compounds for Proof of Concept (POC) studies. However, this new agreement with SFJ will enable Eisai to simultaneously pursue multiple promising late-stage clinical development programs, which it expects will further accelerate its product creation activities and allow new products to become available for patients more quickly.

By swiftly and reliably advancing the development of new drugs in accordance with its comprehensive product creation strategy, which encompasses both the strategic collaboration with Quintiles and this new agreement with SFJ, Eisai seeks to bring new treatments to market as early as possible, and make further contributions to address the unmet medical needs of, and increase the benefits provided to, patients.