Nissan Chemical Strengthening Its Biological Research Laboratories

Nissan Chemical Industries set the stage for accelerated activities at its Biological Research Laboratories, its center for the research of agricultural chemicals and pharmaceuticals including the evaluation of their efficacy, safety and environmental impact, with the December completion of a new building for the research headquarters.

The company has a goal to improve and expand its research setup under its Vista 2015 medium-term business plan, and a project to reorganize the laboratories from the ground up in the five-year period from 2011 to 2015. The laboratories are located in Shiraoka, Minamisaitama, in Saitama Prefecture.

The new building is the first phase of the project and is chiefly to enhance Nissan’s capability for evaluating pharmaceuticals. Its division that examines how residues of its pesticides affect the environment will also be moved to the new building from Tsukuba, Ibaragi Prefecture, and the development of materials for other life-science products will be stepped up as well.

The project’s second phase is to partially renew the greenhouses where it cultivates fruits and weeds to examine the effects of its pesticides, including those for the study of its agricultural chemicals for overseas markets. In the third phase, a two-level pesticide research wing will be built. The total investment for the three phases is put at 5 bn yen ($65 mn).

The renewal of the laboratories is expected to improve the company’s evaluation of its pharmaceuticals, from genetic aspects to disease models. For pesticides, whose domestic market cannot be expected to grow greatly, its improved greenhouses will allow it to advance their R&D to increase overseas sales.