Message

• Season’s Greetings and Best Wishes for the New Year 2026

  President & CEO, Setsuko Hashimoto

• 

With the start of 2026, I would like to extend my heartfelt greetings.

In 2025, global economic trends were influenced by policy changes following the U.S. administration transition, while international tensions persisted in regions such as Ukraine and the Middle East. Domestically, the Osaka-Kansai Expo attracted worldwide attention to advanced technologies, including regenerative medicine, and Japan witnessed the historic appointment of its first female Prime Minister.
Amid these developments, our company continued to advance commercialization efforts with the goal of obtaining manufacturing and marketing approval for our allogeneic cartilage cell sheet (CLS2901C) by 2030. On October 9, 2025, the first patient was enrolled in our Phase III clinical trial. We remain committed to ensuring the steady progress of this trial and to delivering this innovative therapy to patients as soon as possible.
In our cell cultureware business, sales were impacted by significant changes in the U.S. research environmentresulting from reductions in research budgets, as well as ongoing geopolitical instability in Europe and the Middle East. On the other hand, we successfully initiated production and recorded our first sales of UpCell® flasks, which are in high demand internationally. Moving forward, we will strengthen our sales activities and focus on developing new products aligned with market needs to acquire new customers and drive revenue growth.
In our regenerative medicine contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) business, the Tokyo Metropolitan Hospital Organization’s Tama Hokubu Medical Center launched a self-funded regenerative medicine treatment aimed at preventing esophageal stricture following endoscopic cancer resection. We supported regulatory procedures and entered into a contract to manufacture the cell sheets used in this treatment. We will continue to actively promote our capabilities as a CDMO for regenerative medicine products and strive to secure new contract opportunities.

In November 2025, we hosted the 4th Cell Sheet Engineering Innovation Forum, which welcomed over 100 external participants and concluded successfully. This event provided an opportunity to introduce Japan’s world-first “Cell Sheet Engineering” to a broader community of researchers. With each successive forum, the level of research presentations has continued to improve, and we believe these interactions will further accelerate the advancement and social implementation of cell sheet engineering.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of CellSeed. As we celebrate this milestone, we reaffirm our commitment to the early realization and commercialization of regenerative medicine. We sincerely appreciate your continued support and partnership in the year ahead.
Finally, I extend my deepest gratitude for the kindness and cooperation you have shown us over the past year. I wish you and your organization a prosperous and fulfilling 2026.