ONO Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

Ono Pharmaceutical's first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2027 saw revenue fall 8.9% year on year to 116.1 billion yen, while operating profit rose 39.4% to 30.6 billion yen and net profit climbed 36.7% to 24.1 billion yen. According to the company, among the costs excluded from core results, amortization of intangible assets came to 6 billion yen and the expensing of inventory measured at fair value came to 2 billion yen, both below year-earlier levels and helping to support the profit gain. However, the combined decline in these two items fell short of 1 billion yen, suggesting that broader cost reductions, including in cost of sales and research and development expenses, were the main driver. For the full year, the company plans revenue of 455 billion yen, down 11.8% from the previous year, while targeting operating profit of 94 billion yen, up 1.9%, and net profit of 71 billion yen, up 1.8%, a plan that anticipates a larger revenue decline than in the first quarter while keeping profit roughly in line with the prior year. At the first-quarter stage, progress against the full-year plan stands at 25.5% for revenue, roughly the one-quarter mark, while operating profit is somewhat ahead at 32.6%. For the full fiscal year ended March 2026, revenue was 515.7 billion yen, up 5.9%, operating profit was 92.2 billion yen, up 54.4%, and net profit was 69.7 billion yen, up 39.4%, though that period included a rebound effect from the prior year's cost of sales, which had included a 13.6 billion yen sales milestone for Forxiga tablets under a co-promotion agreement with AstraZeneca.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled a broad slate of AI products, partnerships, and customer deployments at the company's Japan AI event in Tokyo on July 15. The announcements spanned physical AI, healthcare, financial services, quantum computing, automotive, manufacturing, and gaming, highlighting Nvidia's push to position its technologies at the forefront of Japan's next-generation AI infrastructure. In physical AI and robotics, Nvidia launched Cosmos 3 Edge for on-device vision reasoning, and companies including FANUC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kubota, NEC, SoftBank, Sony Group, and Yaskawa Electric plan to join the Nvidia Cosmos Coalition to develop open physical AI models. In healthcare, Astellas Pharma, Eisai, Daiichi Sankyo, Ono Pharmaceutical, and Takeda Pharmaceutical are deploying Nvidia BioNeMo for AI-powered drug discovery, while Canon and Fujifilm introduced Nvidia-powered next-generation CT systems, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries is advancing AI-enabled surgical and hospital robots. In financial services, Mizuho Financial plans Japan's largest on-premises AI factory for banking, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial has deployed an AI factory through Japan Research Institute, and Rakuten Bank is developing AI transaction foundation models using Nvidia Agent Toolkit. Huang emphasized that the next wave of AI will be physical AI—robots, factories, vehicles, and industrial systems that can perceive, reason, and act in the real world—and said Japan's leadership in robotics, manufacturing, and precision engineering positions it to play a leading role in this transition.

Deciphera Pharmaceuticals announced the first patient has been dosed in the global pivotal Phase 3 INTREPID study evaluating sapablursen for the treatment of polycythemia vera, a rare and potentially life-threatening hematologic disease. The study will compare the efficacy and safety of sapablursen to placebo over a 32-week double-blind treatment period followed by up to 124 weeks of open-label treatment, with the primary endpoint being response defined by the absence of phlebotomy eligibility. Sapablursen has received Fast Track, Orphan Drug, and Breakthrough Therapy designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The trial has initiated in the United States and is planned in additional regions including North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Europe. Deciphera is a member of Ono Pharmaceutical, which obtained exclusive global rights to sapablursen through a license agreement with Ionis Pharmaceuticals in March 2025.