According to The Nikkei Asian Review, drugmakers look to apply advanced technologies used to treat cancer and other diseases toward combating seasonal allergies, a market segment set to skyrocket as climate change expands the range of affected populations worldwide.
Japanese midtier player Torii Pharmaceutical rolled out a treatment last year designed to block the immune response that triggers symptoms. The therapy, marketed as Cedarcure, reduces hypersensitivity in the immune system by administering allergens in controlled doses. Considered safe for children, the drug is to be taken for three to five years to prevent any remission for a long period.
The Tokyo-based company's sales of Cedarcure topped 400 million yen ($3.6 million) in just half a year since the treatment's release last June. Torii aims to lift sales by nearly sevenfold to 2.7 billion yen this year.
Swiss drugmaker Novartis aims to debut the world's first antibody-based treatment for seasonal allergies in Japan as early as autumn. Novartis targets pollen allergies with the antibody technology used in cancer drug Opdivo and remedies for the autoimmune disorder rheumatoid arthritis. The treatment is intended to prevent allergic reactions by inhibiting the immune response that causes them.
Clinical trials in Japan showed that the Novartis drug significantly reduces nose and eye symptoms when combined with conventional therapies like antihistamines. The company has filed for approval with Japan's health ministry, hoping to begin clinical use for patients with severe symptoms in the fall.
French drugmaker Sanofi is conducting clinical trials for an antibody-based treatment of seasonal allergic rhinitis. Dutch company HAL Allergy and others are developing injectable versions of Torii's Cedarcure.
An estimated 20 million people in Japan are affected by pollen allergies from plants such as cedar and cypress. Conventional remedies like antihistamines have limited effect, leaving many people to suffer symptoms like sneezing and a runny nose. The number of patients who went to a hospital for the condition jumped about 50% between 1996 and 2014.
The Japanese market for pollen allergy remedies is estimated at more than 200 billion yen, or $1.8 billion. The global market for treating rhinitis or nasal congestion caused by allergies reaches $15 billion, according to Indian company Market Research Future.
The market appears likely to grow. Europe's airborne ragweed pollen count has climbed since 1986, with the number of patients expected to hit 77 million by 2060 from 34 million currently. And in the U.S., where nearly 300 related clinical trials are ongoing, a University of Washington research paper predicts that ragweed habitats will increase sharply by the 2050s due to temperature and precipitation changes.
The macroeconomic impact also is heavy. High pollen counts resulting from last year's unusually hot summer could depress Japan's real consumer spending by 569.1 billion yen in January-March 2019, the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute has said.
But with many allergic reactions still unexplained, drug development in this field is no smooth sailing. Japan's Astellas Pharma gave up on developing a pollen allergy vaccination.
High costs tied to the latest technologies also present a hurdle to developing treatments, amid pressure in many parts of the world to lower drug prices. Companies also must consider how much money to devote toward treatments for non-life-threatening allergies.
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https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-trends/Drugmakers-tap-cutting-edge-tech-to-fight-pollen-allergies

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/7406137

According to The Australian Financial Review, US networking technology giant Cisco will pour $61 million into a new Australian plan to develop critical infrastructure, target work on government digitisation projects and invest in local start-ups.
The $61 million will be deployed over three years and forms part of a global Country Digital Acceleration program, which it claims helps countries to elevate their performance in the innovation stakes, while also helping reposition Cisco as a leading player and an employer of choice in the cloud and artificial intelligence era.
Australia and New Zealand vice-president Ken Boal told The Australian Financial Review the investment was the result of a 12-month push from the local team to convince Cisco chief executive Chuck Robbins about the region's potential.

https://www.afr.com/technology/cisco-brings-61m-to-target-australian-innovation-and-digitisation-projects-20190221-h1bkfe

​If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/cisco
​

According to The Asahi Shimbun, industry leader Toppan Printing Co. has developed an innovative paper container for shampoo and other liquids, featuring a seamless base to prevent water from seeping in.
The "Cube Pack" uses about 75 percent less petroleum-derived raw material than conventional plastic products, company officials said, but the path to innovation did not come easy.
"To start with, we had to change our way of thinking, which was quite a task in itself," said 51-year-old Noriyuki Sasaki of the development team.
Conventional paper packages for bathroom use typically are not water proof, causing mold to grow over time.
Some existing paper package products, such as those for beverages, are designed to prevent liquid from seeping out, and one of the first tasks was to move away from that line of thinking, the team said.
The Cube Pack is made by gluing two sheets of paper together and blowing air into the space in-between, eliminating the problem posed by paper edges on the bottom surface.
Toppan is currently making machines capable of inflating the Cube Pack.
As plastic waste flowing into ocean waters has become an urgent global issue, there is an increasing need for products that use less or no plastic material.
Toppan began shipping samples of the new product in February to daily goods manufacturers, cosmetic makers and other clients. It is hoping to set the price of Cube Pack products at about the same level as their plastic counterparts and have them sold commercially from around autumn next year.
The plastic components of the new product include a film for waterproofing and freshness preservation, the cap and the pump. Toppan plans to replace them in the future with bioplastic, which is made from plants or other raw materials.
Toppan has received inquiries about the Cube Pack from potential partners in the food, pharmaceutical and other industries, company officials added.
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http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201903090010.html

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https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/6345415
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games offers a chance for Japan to show off its sophisticated technology, and plans are afoot to make extensive use of robotics at key venues for the first time.
Two types of robots demonstrated to media representatives on March 15 have been selected by the organizing committee for the Summer Olympics for use during the Games, and more could be in the works.
One is a human support robot developed by Toyota Motor Corp. Two models work as a tag team to provide assistance to spectators in wheelchairs.
One model escorts the spectator to the section in the venue set aside for those in wheelchairs, while the other delivers drinks ordered through a touch panel device.
Sixteen pairs of the robots will be installed for the wheelchair seating area to be set aside at the new National Stadium, the main venue for the Tokyo Olympics.
A "power assist suit" developed by Panasonic Corp. will also be deployed.
The device worn on an individual's back is designed to make lifting of heavy objects easier. The device weighs 4.5 kilograms and will be used to unload gear and other equipment used by athletes and teams.
The motor in the device reduces the burden on the wearer's hips by between 10 and 40 percent. About 20 of the devices will be used at the Tokyo Olympics.
One unit now sells for about 700,000 yen (US$ 6,300) and some are already in use at domestic airports.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201903160027.html

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https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/8520281 
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According to The Australian Financial Review, the Australian gold sector is in great shape in comparison to its global peers because money talks, according to Evolution Mining boss Jake Klein.
Mr Klein said the Australian sector was making money and doing a better job of delivering value to shareholders than some overseas peers, and that was creating opportunities to acquire assets in North America.
Evolution and other ASX-listed gold producers are now waiting for the dust to settle on Barrick Gold's decision to shelve a hostile $US18 billion ($25.4 billion) bid for Newmont Mining.
Barrick boss Mark Bristow had made it clear he intended to sell off Newmont assets in Australia if the takeover went ahead, but instead the world's two biggest gold miners have agreed to form a joint venture in Nevada.

https://www.afr.com/business/australian-gold-miners-making-hay-while-sun-shines-on-sector-20190312-h1cann

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https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/4705382 
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, a dragonfly species in Japan secretes wax that reflects ultraviolet light, which could be used in sunscreens for people with metal allergies.
Metals in currently available sunblock products cause allergic reactions in some users.
The special water-repellent wax in the dragonflies, which inhabit broad areas in Japan, could help develop biologically derived sunscreens for people with allergies, according to a Japanese team studying the insects.
The scientists from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and other institutions are conducting further research into detailed properties of the wax, which they said was found to contain special components seldom seen in other creatures.
Mature males of the white-tailed skimmer dragonfly (Orthetrum albistylum), typically seen by the waterside in bright sunlight, strongly reflect ultraviolet light on and around their backs. The team studied components that are abundantly secreted from their dorsal sections and found a waxy substance resembling fat.
Microscopic studies showed the wax surface is covered with fine plate-like grains that scatter light, piled on top of one another.
“The components we have found could help develop biologically derived sunscreens that are quite unlike conventional products, although there is a need to study their safety and other properties,” said Ryo Futahashi, an AIST senior researcher, who was part of the study team.
The research results were published in eLife, a British scientific journal.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201903020003.html

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https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/9091889
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According to The Australian Financial Review, assertions by Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe that first-home buyers and upgraders are returning to the property market have been called into question by those in the industry, who say buyers remain thin on the ground.
"What we do see in the housing market lately is an increasing number of people saying it's the right time to buy a home," Dr Lowe told The Australian Financial Review Business Summit on Wednesday.
"Investors still aren't coming back in significant numbers, but first-home owners and upgrade buyers are starting to think, 'well, maybe, with lower prices, I can enter the market'," he said.
While selling and buyers' agents alike say that now is a good time to buy – Sydney prices are down 13.2 per cent and Melbourne's down 9.6 per cent since they peaked – they say negative sentiment continues to weigh on potential buyers.

https://www.afr.com/news/agents-see-little-evidence-of-phillip-lowes-property-market-comeback-20190307-h1c3h3

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https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/6201249 
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, a health ministry panel on March 5 approved a clinical study on what will be the world’s first transplant of cornea cells created from human iPS cells on a patient.
A team led by Kohji Nishida, professor of ophthalmology at Osaka University, expects to conduct its first transplant as early as June.
Four patients with corneal epithelial stem cell impoverishment syndrome will be the subjects of the team’s clinical study, which will focus on safety.
The cause of the syndrome is a loss of stem cells that produce a new cornea that can cover the surface of a black eye caused by injury or other reasons.
The syndrome leads to poor eyesight and sometimes blindness.
Corneas of dead people are currently transplanted into patients, but the organs are chronically in short supply.
In the clinical study, the team will transform iPS cells from a third party into cornea cells, turn them into a “sheet” that is 0.05 millimeter thick, and transplant them onto a patient’s eye.
Three million to 4 million cells will be transplanted in the study, according to the plan.
If all goes well, the transplanted cells will enable a lasting production of cornea cells, maintain corneal transparency, and help the patient regain lost eyesight.
The approval was given under certain conditions.
The ministry panel has required the team to compile an interim report for the panel six months after conducting the second transplant operation. The team can then perform the remaining two transplants.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201903060047.html

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https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/ips7762229 
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, for possible use in international airports and other multilingual venues, a polyglot artificial intelligence (AI) system is available for accurately recognizing, and separately understanding, overlapping voices in up to 10 languages, including Japanese, English and French.
The technology, developed by electronics giant Mitsubishi Electric Corp., can recognize speech made simultaneously by more than one person in different languages almost instantaneously and with high precision.
Conventional voice recognition technologies are language-specific.
“Our system can be taught to recognize accurately what each speaker has said, even when a speaker, or speakers, have switched the language halfway through, or when someone else has begun speaking in a different tongue, as long as the languages involved have been learned in advance,” said Takaaki Hori, a research scientist with the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, in describing the technology.
The multilingual technology characteristically does not need language-specific expert knowledge, such as a dictionary of pronunciations because it relies on “deep learning,” an AI technology that uses a “neural network,” which imitates a nerve circuit.
Mitsubishi said its technology has combined a method for inferring temporal correspondence relations between voice and a string of characters and a separate inference method that emphasizes connectedness of the sound and text of a character string.
The system, when taught multiple languages, achieved a voice recognition accuracy of more than 90 percent when five languages (Japanese, English, French, German and Italian) were spoken in low-noise environments. The accuracy remained above 80 percent when a total of 10 languages were used, with the addition of Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Dutch, the officials said.
The system can work on a small, stand-alone computer system, such as a personal computer for playing video games, without connection to the Internet or other resources. It could be used, for example, in transcribing conversations from a video containing speech in multiple languages.
Extensive tests are planned in the future for assessing practicability, such as the extent of speech recognition capabilities in bustling areas and other noisy environments, to make the technology more practical, the officials added.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201903070003.html

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https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/10-ai 
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According to The Australian Financial Review, the federal government's $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility has accelerated its funding of projects throughout regional areas before the May election.
While the NAIF has been criticised for the slow pace of its investments – with only four loans made in the first two years of its operation – it has cranked up its spending this year, making another six investments.
More than $1.3 billion has been spent on 10 projects in North Queensland, the Northern Territory and the northern half of Western Australia, and more money is expected to be pushed out the door before the end of the financial year.

https://www.afr.com/news/politics/northern-australian-infrastructure-facility-accelerates-loans-before-may-election-20190307-h1c3gi

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/7683578 
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