Corporate Brand Lequio Pharma

From the 15th to the 16th centuries, Ryukyu Kingdom became recognized around the world as a place of overseas trade amongst Asian countries. New heights of prosperity was reached in the Ryukyu Kingdom that it was mentioned as “Lequio” in the account of his time in the East, written by Tomé Pires, a Portuguese who used to work at the Malacca Trading House. For the people in modern Okinawa, “Lequio” has become the symbolic name which carries the spirit of then flourishing Ryukyu Kingdom, rooted in strong sense of self-reliance with far-sighted innovation and its eagerness to take on new challenges.
We combine this word with “Pharmaceutical” to create our original brand Lequio Pharma. As a pharmaceutical company originated in the community of Okinawa, we aspire to inherit this frontier spirit of our predecessors to bring health as a key to open the ever-widening future.

Corporate History and Beyond

Road to Founding

Starting a New Industry in Okinawa

Our Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Oku grew up in Itoman City, Okinawa. Itoman city is known for producing many hard-working heroic female figures such as Toshiko Teruya, Kane Kinjyo, and Natsuko Kinjyo. Ms. Oku was under scholarly influence of the place while Okinawa was in the wake of the post war, rising to recover from U.S. military control. The daily necessities were mainly from the U.S. military and the local economic system was heavily relying on the income from American bases, she started to grow her keen desire to start an industry unique for Okinawa. She went to Taiwan to study language during her time at Ryukyu University, this was when she was inspired by their way of self-reliant life which became a turning point for her.
After she graduated from university, she worked on the import and sale of the subtropical plants such as mango, litchi, and palm trees, with the objective of enriching the natural environment of Okinawa and searching for key plants that would become industries in addition to sugar cane. Although she has continued this business for about three years, she realized that in order to make an industry out of agriculture, she needed vast agricultural land and funding, but she had to suspend everything due to marriage and childcare. After coming back, she opened a restaurant in Naha city to raise funds for securing farmland.
She started from scratch with no experience on import or restaurant businesses, but sales doubled in five years and the business was so successful that it was recognized as an excellent taxpayer by the prefectural government.
One day, her senior from university showed her the sample of Chinese medicine for hemorrhoids that she brought back from China. When she heard that it was for the treatment of internal hemorrhoids without surgery, she had an epiphany and thought “This is it!”.
The cost of logistics was the bottleneck of the Okinawan economy in the import business, but Ms. Oku saw the potential of this low-cost, competitive, and high value-added drugs. She flew to Beijing immediately to see the effects of the drug with her own eyes and confirmed her conviction. She managed to get the approval from the inventor, Professor Shi Zhao Qi, for developing the medicine in Japan and beyond. After returning to Japan, she was introduced to meet Professor Shuji Tsuchiya (Yokohama City University) and Professor Yukio Sumikoshi (then Social Insurance Central General Hospital, now known as Tokyo Yamate Medical Center).

Becoming Japan’s First Achievement

Working in the Lab

In 1991, Ms. Oku and her colleagues established Chuyakuken Co., Ltd., to research and develop the treatment for hemorrhoids.
Normally, it takes about 15 years to process all the necessary procedures, from basic research, non-clinical trials to clinical trials, before a drug is approved and actually commercialized. Whilst there were already some therapeutic drug developments for hemorrhoids in the process, the Zione brought back to Okinawa had the problem of sedimentation over time, making them less stable as Japanese medicine. Ms. Oku stayed persistent and asked for advice from a specialist to elucidate the sediment. At night she operated a restaurant while she herself collected data in the research laboratory. After many trials and errors, she managed to overcome obstacles through perseverance and determination, which was awarded with acquiring the patent in over 17 countries including Japan.
Further development was faced with challenges in securing the funding in a highly competitive process. In order to be approved as a drug, it must pass through a number of exams, including animal tests for safety, pharmacokinetics and pharmacology, and clinical trials. Animal experiments alone required tens of millions to hundreds of millions of yen per year. Ms. Oku reflects, “It’s because I had no knowledge on developing new drugs, I could embark on this journey. If I had known how hard it was, I wouldn’t have done it.”

Becoming Japan’s First Achievement

In order to get manufacturing approval by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, it was expected that it would be a time-intensive process, which needed to be performed with much bigger organizational capability with sufficient funding. After careful considerations, it was the right time to find the joint partnership that had the know-how to take on such bigger scale projects. Later, Yoshitomi Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. (currently known as Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation) joined as a co-developer, and in 2004, we obtained the approval for the production and listing of the NHI price list of Zione Injection (an internal hemorrhoid sclerotherapy agent), with sales beginning in March 2005.
From this we established our company as the first drug discovery venture in Okinawa, as well as becoming the first venture business in Japan to introduce new drugs.

The New Medicine, Zione Injection

It is believed that one out of three Japanese people suffer from hemorrhoids today, but resection surgery has been the main treatment for severe hemorrhoids. Hemorrhoids developed inside the rectum are called internal hemorrhoids. Zione Injection is a drug that is injected into the affected area of internal hemorrhoids to sclerose and retract. Since it has significantly reduced pain after treatment and even can allow patients to return home on the day of treatment therefore resulting in less stress on the patients. This should contribute to the improvement of Quality of Life for patients. At present, Zione Injection has been introduced in many hospitals and is widely used as an internal hemorrhoid sclerotherapy and ALTA therapy. *1

*1 The acronym of ALTA has been taken from the two initial letters of the two active ingredients, aluminum potassium sulfate hydrate and tannic acid, which are the compounding agents for the local injection of Zione Injection.

Road Ahead

Looking for A New Drug

After succeeding on developing Zione Injection, it was time for something new. Ms. Oku focused on the traditional idea of “ishoku dogen” meaning that daily healthy meals can prevent and cure disease. In other words, “food is medicine”. With this in mind, she focused on medicinal quality of local plants such as turmeric and papaya for the idea of a new drug or other related products. First was turmeric. The active ingredient of turmeric is called curcumin, and they started research on its efficacy for prevention of dementia.
After entering into the health and food industry in 2008, the first product, Lequio’s Turmeric Supplement GOLD was launched. Prior to this, we held public seminars and introduced papers that curcumin is effective for reducing the risk of developing dementia, and conducted promotional activities. This later leads to the idea of the next product, Memorin.
In addition, in 2007, we received the Okinawa Industrial Promotion Corporation’s grant, “Okinawa Innovation Creating Project 2007” on the research project, “The pharmacological effect or function of the extract of Crassocephalum crepidioides and its development of functional ingredients.” In 2010, we launched the second product, Okinawa Fermented Papaya Jelly LQ-001, which helps to improve physical condition.