In the past, Japan created pharmaceuticals that revolutionized global medicine, for example, statins, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and antiparasitic drugs. However, the country has fallen far behind the rest of the world in creating vaccines and therapeutic drugs against the global spread of COVID-19. In order to regain a leadership position, it is necessary to establish a fruitful system for developing and fostering drug discovery.

Novel drug trials in humans frequently fail to meet the safety and efficacy levels obtained in animal studies, which suggests a need to better understand animal disease. In addition, in veterinary medicine, drugs approved for humans are often diverted to animals, and drugs not approved as human drugs are often used as veterinary drugs; moreover, the market share for veterinary drugs is considerably less than that for human drugs. There is therefore a reason to develop human and veterinary medicines in tandem.

To promote One Medicine research, we strive to develop human resources able to support management and expedite the entire research process from identification of drug discovery targets to development and cultivation of drug discovery seeds, non-clinical studies, and clinical trials. We will place these individuals in key domestic universities and research institutes with the goal of accelerating drug discovery research globally.

For clinical application of drug discovery prospects, it is necessary to conduct non-clinical studies on laboratory animals according to standards set by the government in order to better evaluate safety prior to clinical trials in humans. However, extrapolation of safety and efficacy information obtained from non-clinical studies to humans is decidedly uncertain.
 
By developing and deploying drug discovery seeds using a variety of modalities from nucleic acids to proteins, cells, and artificial materials, and cultivating them using advanced medical devices that make full use of quantum technology and AI, we will improve the process and thereby facilitate development to clinical trials of promising drugs.

Parts of the current organization of Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, Joint Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, United Graduate School of Drug Discovery and Medical Information, and Graduate School of Engineering have been reorganized to promote strong collaboration with Nagoya University and Gifu Pharmaceutical University. Under the new system, researchers in different fields such as medicine, veterinary medicine, and engineering are in direct communication to nurture translational research.
 
The center has four divisions, the Division of Animal Medical Science responsible for the development of disease model animals based on comparative medicine, the Division of Innovative Modality Development, responsible for the development and cultivation of drug discovery seeds, the Division of Advanced Medical Device Development responsible for medical device development, and the Division of Research Management and Development responsible for the promotion of inter-departmental collaboration for supporting rapid development and cultivation of drug discovery seeds, out-licensing to companies, acquisition of intellectual property and large budgets, and facilitation of university-launched ventures.

The center will collaborate with international institutions for life science research and pharmaceutical and medical device development companies through research and personnel exchanges to promote world-class translational research. We will develop new interdisciplinary fields that transcend the border of medicine and veterinary medicine under the perspective of One Medicine.