Kaneka enters partnership with Rohto Pharmaceutical for lacrimal duct tube business

Kaneka Corporation (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Minoru Tanaka) has agreed to work together with Rohto Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture; President: Masashi Sugimoto) in regard to a lacrimal duct tube business.

This partnership aims to further expand the lacrimal duct tube business through the synergy of Kaneka's technical capabilities and product development expertise with Rohto's distinguished branding and sales strengths in the field of ophthalmology.
The two companies will first begin working together on sales and then succeed the certification for the lacrimal duct tube, with the objective to further strengthen their partnership.

In 1994, Kaneka launched its lacrimal duct tube for treating epiphora in the field of ophthalmology. Epiphora is a condition where tears fail to be drained into the nasal cavity due to blockage of the lacrimal duct, causing them to overflow. Cases of epiphora are predicted to increase in an aging Japan as well as in the US and other Asian countries.
The main treatment of epiphora is the intubation of lacrimal duct tube which is technique by inserting a dedicated tube into the lacrimal duct for a certain period of time to reconstruct it. By developing a product with both excellent flexibility and strength using its own isobutylene thermoplastic elastomer (SIBS: styrene-isobutylene-styrene copolymer) and through initiatives to educate the market backed by treatment data, Kaneka has gained the largest market share in this field in Japan and has also been selling lacrimal duct tube in the US for over five years.

Rohto Pharmaceutical operates a wide range of businesses, including general-use eye drops that lead the market in Japan, digestion medicines and skincare products, and in March this year they acquired Nitten Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. that specializes in medical-grade ophthalmic eye drops.

Kaneka will continue to provide products and services required by patients and medical personnel to contribute to the treatment of epiphora in the field of ophthalmology.