TOKYO and SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 6/7, 2026 -- Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (TOKYO: 4519, hereafter “Chugai”) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have entered into a Master Collaboration Agreement to advance drug discovery research. The multi-year agreement establishes a framework to facilitate research collaborations in areas including the exploration of disease biology, the identification of novel drug targets, and the development of new therapeutic approaches. An initial research project is already underway with a UCSF principal investigator.

Under the agreement, Chugai and UCSF will leverage UCSF’s scientific innovation and translational research capabilities together with Chugai’s proprietary technologies, including antibody engineering, macrocyclic peptides (SnipeTide™), and small molecules, to advance early-stage research toward the next generation of innovative medicines. The agreement marks a significant step in Chugai’s global open innovation strategy and its commitment to building deeper ties with leading U.S. academic institutions.

The agreement was developed through close collaboration between Chugai Partnering U.S., the partnering function based at the South San Francisco branch of Chugai Pharma USA, Inc. (CPUSA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Chugai, and UCSF Innovation Ventures, UCSF’s office responsible for industry partnerships, technology commercialization, and innovation initiatives.

“This Master Collaboration Agreement reflects Chugai’s commitment to open innovation and represents an important opportunity to advance research collaborations with UCSF,” said Norihisa Onozawa, Executive Vice President at Chugai. “We believe this agreement will create new opportunities to translate innovative science into potential medicines by bringing together complementary capabilities from both organizations. We hope the research conducted under this agreement will help bring innovative medicines to patients as quickly as possible.”

“Innovation Ventures acts as a catalyst for turning early UCSF science into real therapies, and partners like Chugai Pharmaceutical offer complementary technologies that can turbocharge that environment even further,” said David Morris, MD, Vice Chancellor for Business Development, Innovation and Partnerships at UCSF. “This agreement gives us a much faster, more direct way to bring UCSF’s science together with Chugai’s discovery capabilities and development expertise.”