Dr. Jokichi Takamine, the first president of one of the predecessor companies of Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd., Sankyo Co., Ltd., and who succeeded in extracting adrenaline, was selected in 1985 by the Japan Patent Office as one of the Ten Greatest Japanese Inventors. However, also in that top ten list was another renowned scientist who had strong ties to Daiichi Sankyo, Dr. Umetaro Suzuki.
Born in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1874, Dr. Suzuki enrolled in the preparatory course for the Tokyo School of Agriculture and Forestry (now the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Agriculture). After finishing the course, he advanced to a graduate course and earned a Ph.D. in agriculture at the age of 27. He then went to Europe as part of the Ministry of Education’s scholarship program, studying organic chemistry in Switzerland and protein chemistry in Germany. Even after returning to Japan, he continued his research while teaching at the Morioka Imperial College of Agriculture and Forestry (now Iwate University’s Faculty of Agriculture) and later working as a professor at his alma mater, the Imperial University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Agriculture.
In 1910, when he was 36 years old, he discovered an active component in rice bran and named it “Orizanin” after Oryza sativa, the scientific name for rice. This component, now called “vitamin B1,” was the first vitamin in the world to be discovered. However, Dr. Suzuki was an agricultural chemist and not an expert in medicine or pharmacy, so his discovery was hardly recognized, even in Japan. What won more recognition instead was the same component that Dr. Casimir Funk of Poland discovered the following year and named “vitamin.” Yet, the fact remains that Dr. Suzuki made unequivocal contributions to research and discovery in this field. He disclosed that Orizanin was effective in preventing beriberi and helped patients recover from the disease. He also found that it was an essential nutrient for the existence of humans and animals. Together with tuberculosis, beriberi was one of the two major diseases affecting people in Japan back then, killing more than 10,000 people annually. To cope with this situation, Sankyo started selling Orizanin solutions produced at its Shinagawa plant, contributing to the rapid decline in cardiac problems caused by beriberi.
Committed to research and education until his later years to deliver effective medicines
Dr. Suzuki was not only involved in Sankyo but also in Arsemin Shokai, which later became “Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.,” another predecessor of the modern Daiichi Sankyo. He offered advice on production methods and technologies for industrialization, leading the company to domestically produce “Salvarsan” in 1916. Arsemin Shokai was founded for the purpose of manufacturing that drug because imports had been halted during the war. In 1915, he also succeeded in the trial manufacturing of salicylic acid, whose importation had also been stopped. Arsemin Shokai rolled out the product as “Arsaminol,” which helped the company strengthen its initial business foundation.
Dr. Suzuki assumed the post of a scientific adviser at Sankyo several years later and contributed to the development of Japan's first synthetic agricultural chemical, the fumigant insecticide “KOKUZOL,” a move that laid the groundwork for Sankyo to advance into the agrochemicals business. His passion for research was indefatigable.
Dr. Suzuki’s other discoveries also included the development of a synthetic version of sake— an alcoholic beverage that uses a minimum amount of valuable rice and is instead made of alcohol, sugars, succinic acid, amino acid, and other ingredients, while retaining a sake-like flavor. He also developed powdered milk, which later constituted the basis for modified milk powder for infants.
According to Dr Suzuki, “Anyone should be allowed to do what has never been done by other academics if it benefits the nation and its people,” and he stressed that, “An inventor should ask an entrepreneur to bring out his or her invention to the world.” In fact, he had the same idea as Matasaku Shiobara, who founded Sankyo Shoten and took the initiative in helping bring to production products discovered by other researchers. Dr. Suzuki’s enthusiasm for conducting research not only in his field but also in various other fields for the benefit of people in Japan was also similar to Dr. Takamine’s stance.
Dr. Suzuki, who pursued research and development while serving as the head of the Imperial University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Agriculture and president of the Scientific Research Institute, Manchukuo, fell ill and passed away at the age of 70 in 1943 after being awarded an Order of Culture the same year. For the 14 years until he resigned from the post of adviser for Sankyo the previous year, he remained supportive of the company that aimed to provide effective medicine to patients.
Dr. Suzuki’s discovery of the vitamin B1 and other research achievements continue to be effectively utilized and his passion and spirit of inquiry have been passed down in the DNA of modern-day Daiichi Sankyo.
* Beriberi is a disease in which the body does not have enough thiamine (vitamin B1)