Rakuten Medical, Inc. and Shimadzu Corporation, with operations in both Japan & US, have announced a joint development and commercialization agreement to advance a medical device for use on the Illuminox™ platform. This partnership will allow for the development of a medical device using optical measurement technologies to support cancer treatment by photoimmunotherapy.

Therapies developed on the Illuminox platform involve administering a targeting moiety conjugated with one or more dyes, which is illuminated by light at a specific wavelength. Light illumination of the targeted cells transiently excites the drug, and pre-clinical data have shown this excitation elicits rapid and selective necrosis of targeted cells through a biophysical process.

Based on this agreement, both companies will use their expertise to work toward the joint development of technology that will allow visualization, measurement, and recording of the reaction of the dye to light illumination in real-time. This will allow for optimization of light irradiation depending on the tumor. Both companies will cooperate to aim for commercialization of the medical device using the technology on a worldwide basis.