IWAKI & Co., Ltd. was renamed Astena Holdings and became a holding company in June 2021.
In addition to the management of the entire group, Astena Holdings will infuse its efforts into investments in and development of new businesses with an eye toward sustainable growth through ESG management.

SPERA PHARMA is one of the leading integrated CMC R&D contractors in Japan, providing high-level CMC solutions at every stage from R&D to commercialization.
According to customers’ needs, SPERA PHARMA flexibly provides a wide range of services, including process development and manufacturing of drug substances, drug development and manufacturing of investigational drugs, and development of various analytical methods and quality testing.
These services are delivered based on the advanced technological skills, drug development know-how, and rich experience and achievements of SPERA PHARMA’s researchers and technicians who have experience working for major pharmaceutical companies.
(CMC: Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control)

As a company with a procurement platform that broadly covers the upstream needs of the pharmaceutical industry, SPERA NEXUS manufactures generic drug substances as in-house products, as well as APIs and intermediates for new drugs, developed products, and chemical products on contract. Its GMP-compliant facilities with a production capacity of 10 to 10,000 L turn out high-quality, cost-effective products.

In addition to our own products, SPERA NEXUS offers a wide range of other products made in and outside of Japan; including APIs, raw materials, intermediates, and additives; to our customers.

Since its establishment in 2005, JITSUBO Co., Ltd., as an R&D enterprise specializing in peptide pharmaceuticals, has engaged in the research and development of its original peptide synthesis technology,Molecular HivingTM.

In addition to being a low-cost, high-quality solution, this technology features green chemistry design—a sustainability factor recently gaining momentum in Europe—and is seeing increasing adoption in the manufacturing of a broad range of peptide APIs, including everything from cosmetic products to active drug ingredients.

With years of experience and an outstanding research team, JITSUBO develops manufacturing processes for the target peptides at customers’ requests. For commercialization, JITSUBO delivers requested peptide APIs through collaborative efforts with Switzerland’s Bachem, a world’s leading peptide API manufacturing CMO who JITSUBO has an exclusive technical cooperation partnership with.

In the field of middle-molecule pharmaceuticals, which is expected to grow in the future, JITSUBO will continue to provide environmentally-friendly processes and high-quality, low-cost peptide drug substances based on Molecular HivingTM.

Since its establishment in 1931, IWAKI SEIYAKU has been manufacturing and marketing mainly ethical drugs and OTC drugs. The company has the largest selection of skin treatment products in Japan and has a high market share.

It offers a broad range of contract services from preparation design to commercial production, and utilizing the advantages of the R&D and manufacturing divisions within the Kamata Plant, can provide integrated and consistent contract services ranging from R&D to manufacturing.

In the beauty treatment field, we develop doctor’s cosmetics based on cosmetic skin medicine.

IWAKI SEIYAKU SAKURA FACTORY is a contract pharmaceutical manufacturing company that was established in Sakura, Chiba Prefecture in July 2020.

Available dosage forms include injectable, solid, topical formulations, and liquid dosage forms.

The factory has the production capacity and techniques for contract manufacturing for both investigational drugs and commercial production.

The factory is also equipped with a number of analytical instruments, which enables IWAKI SEIYAKU SAKURA FACTORY to serve customers’ various analytical needs.

As a major pharmaceutical manufacturing plant within the Group, IWAKI SEIYAKU SAKURA FACTORY will continue to improve its facilities, technologies, and quality.

Meltex provides high value-added surface treatment chemicals. The company responds to customers’ requests and conducts research and development based on its own consideration of the characteristics required for the next generation.

The electronics industry is transitioning to 5G and preparing for 6G as the pace of change accelerates.

Meltex has group companies in Hong Kong, China (Tianjin and Shenzhen), Taiwan, South Korea, and Thailand, and provides global services.