Project to accelerate the development of new drugs incurable diseases.

Use iPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells), the government embarked on a project to accelerate the development of new drugs intractable number of patients is small.
Incurable disease of more than 50, such as Parkinson's disease is the object, I fix the joint research system Find a candidate for treatment in fiscal 2016. Glare to the commercialization of medicine from basic research, iPS cell project of country-led plus companies in the first, it's plan for sending the incurable disease treatment originating in Japan in cooperation between industry and academia.
Research is difficult for patients less intractable disease, drug development and investigation of the cause is not advanced in the world. Research to reproduce the incurable diseases in laboratory animals such as the mouse has been carried out for this, but there is a limit to find a drug that can be used for patients.
With the technology iPS cells, it is possible from the cells of the blood and skin of incurable patients, making the diseased cells in the patient, such as nerve and muscle, to increase while it is alive. It is expected that if I use the study of intractable diseases, research that you can determine the cause, or check the efficacy of drugs, and advancing by leaps and bounds. I want you to establish the position of world leader in development of new drugs to take full advantage of iPS cells starting in Japan.


政府は、ｉＰＳ細胞（人工多能性幹細胞）を使い、患者数が少ない難病の新薬開発を加速させるプロジェクトに乗り出した。
　パーキンソン病など５０以上の難病が対象で、２０１６年度までに治療薬の候補物質を探す共同研究体制を整える。基礎研究から薬の実用化までをにらみ、企業を加えた国主導のｉＰＳ細胞プロジェクトは初で、産学の連携で日本発の難病治療薬を送り出す構想だ。
　難病は患者が少ないため研究が難しく、原因の究明や薬の開発が、世界的に進んでいない。このためマウスなどの実験動物で難病を再現する研究が行われているが、患者に使える薬を見つけるには限界があった。
　ｉＰＳ細胞の技術を使うと、難病患者の皮膚や血液の細胞から、神経や筋肉などの患者自身の病気の細胞を作り、生きたままの状態で増やすことができる。難病の研究に使えば、原因を調べたり、薬の効き目を確かめたりする研究が、飛躍的に進むと期待される。日本で出発したｉＰＳ細胞をフルに活用して新薬開発の世界的なリーダーの立場を確立してほしいですね。