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Himalayan fungus boosts Mitsubishi Tanabe sales with MS drug Gilenya



Tetsuro Fujita’s eureka moment about a Himalayan fungus in 1985 may mean part of a $5 billion payout for Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. a quarter-century later.

While the scientist drove over a bridge between Japan’s Shikoku and Honshu islands on his way to take up a research post for traditional herbal remedies, Fujita realized the fungus, used in a Chinese medicinal soup, must be suppressing the immune system of the insects on which it grew.

His research at Kyoto University not only helped yield Gilenya, a new treatment for multiple sclerosis -- the debilitating condition afflicting more than 2 million people worldwide -- it also promises to bring Mitsubishi Tanabe its biggest money earner. Annual sales of the pill, the first for the autoimmune disease, may exceed $5 billion, UBS AG said..Read More - http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm/fuseact ... ageid/1309

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