TERUMO 100th HISTORY

Terumo Corporation was founded as Red Line Thermometer Corporation by a group of several medical scientists led by Dr. Shibasaburo Kitasato, with the intention of manufacturing the most reliable clinical thermometer possible in Japan.

Terumo released an advertisement in Japan asking, "Why are Terumo syringes disposed of after only one use?"

This advertisement was intended to convince the public that disposal syringes were neither wasteful nor extravagant, but rather reduced the risk of infection, ensured higher safety, and contributed to people’s life and health. Although single-use syringes are widely used nowadays, Terumo faced an enormous challenge to promote them at that time.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, patients needing blood transfusions received blood donated by immediate family members or relatives with a matching blood type. This so-called "bedside transfusion" was the standard method at the time. However, the rarity of some blood types, donor scarcity, and the impossibility of checking for infectious diseases with bedside transfusion generated demand for a way to store donated blood for future use. The resulting method allowed physicians to use particular components of blood, such as red blood cells, platelets, plasma, and other key components.

Blood was originally stored in glass bottles in blood banks. However, this necessitated air needles used for filling air in the bottle during transfusions, increasing the risk of blood contamination. The issue was resolved when plastic blood bags not requiring air needles were developed in the U.S. Japanese physicians soon requested similar products and Terumo took up the challenge.

[Terumo America]
In April 1971, Terumo acquired the trading rights of Unipon in Los Angeles, which had handled the import and sale of its vacuum blood collection tubes, and established Terumo America in Compton, California. Founded with $200,000 of capital, the new company rented 2,200 square meters of office and warehouse space for its 15 associates: three Japanese and 12 local.
Sales did not grow as expected, however, as the sales network inherited from Unipon was limited primarily to within California and as its market entry was effectively blocked by major U.S. manufacturers. Few Japanese manufacturers had sales offices in the U.S. at the time, and Terumo was the first such case in the medical device field. As Terumo was relatively unknown in the U.S., its products had yet to establish a reputation for reliability. Distribution was a problem; in fact, no major distributor agreed to sell Terumo products.
Nevertheless, Terumo America associates continued to visit distributors and persistently emphasize the quality of their products. One major distributor eventually relented, agreeing to take on Terumo products. Terumo America continued its outreach, sending sales representatives to work in major cities. This finally bore fruit in fiscal 1973 when sales doubled over the previous year. Terumo America associates were finally gaining confidence.

[Terumo Europe]
In May 1971, Terumo Europe S.A. was established in Brussels, Belgium with a total of nine associates: Three Japanese and six local.
Terumo established a European base of operations in the 1970s in response to corporate growth. Having secured its position as Japan’s leading thermometer manufacturer, the company expanded into the field of disposable medical devices, boosting manufacturing by investing in major factories in Fujinomiya and Ashitaka.
Terumo expanded internationally, cognizant that that medical supplies are a universal need and that disposable medical devices could contribute to global healthcare. This paralleled indications that Japan’s long economic boom might be faltering, limiting corporate reliability on domestic sales. After gaining its overseas foothold with Terumo Europe S.A., the company established Terumo Italia SRL and Laboratoires Terumo France S.A. in 1973. A new office in Sweden became a Northern European base for the company in 1974, followed by Terumo (Deutschland) GmbH in 1975, demonstrating a fast-paced European expansion.

In 1977, Terumo entered the field of artificial organs with the Japanese launch of a dialyzer used for artificial dialysis.
Terumo chose a hollow-fiber dialyzer for its superior dialysis efficiency, over a Kolff or Kiil dialyzer, both common at that time. Production technology and other challenges were overcome for a successful Terumo product launch. Systemization in artificial dialysis was subsequently expanded with extracorporeal blood tubing in 1978 and a dialysis monitoring device in 1979.
The technology nurtured with the hollow-fiber dialyzer laid the foundation for later development of a hollow-fiber oxygenator.
Note: Dialyzer business operations were transferred from Terumo to Asahi Medical K.K. in 2002.

When surgery is performed on patients suffering from vascular or cardiac issues such as a heart attack, angina or valvular disease, the heart must be temporarily stopped. During such surgery, blood must be circulated outside the body, where it can be oxygenated using an oxygenator. Terumo successfully developed a hollow-fiber-membrane oxygenator, and in 1982 launched Capiox II.

The oxygenator’s hollow-fiber membrane is composed of porous hydrophobic polypropylene material enabling gas exchange. Past designs had allowed the blood to circulate on the inner side of the membrane and oxygen to pass to the exterior side. However, hollow-fiber-membrane oxygenators produced after the improved Capiox E in 1987 reversed this function with oxygen on the inner side and blood circulating on the exterior.

In 1980, Terumo began developing a digital thermometer as a safer alternative. The goal was a product capitalizing on electronic technology while matching mercury thermometers’ ease of use and precision. The new thermometer also needed to deliver quick but accurate temperature measurements.

Mercury thermometers must be left under the patient’s arm for around 10 minutes until the temperature reading stabilizes at body temperature, a technique known as equilibrium body temperature. Digital thermometers use initial temperature data to estimate the equilibrium body temperature, facilitating a faster accurate result.
Development of an extremely small and specialized LSI chip proved key to accurate prediction of equilibrium body temperature. Other challenges included creation of a waterproof design that allowed sterilization. When all issues were resolved and a mass-production system was in place, Terumo launched its first digital thermometer for hospital use in December 1983, with a home-use version arriving in February of the following year.

Once the company was confident that its new product would be a success, it discontinued the mercury thermometer in 1985, closing one chapter of corporate history.

Terumo began developing angiographic catheters in 1979. This type of catheter is inserted into a blood vessel to enable injection of contrast media into a lesion in a patient's heart, brain, or other organ which will be visible on X-ray images. It plays an important role in the diagnosis of organ diseases.
The development of these catheters was a meticulous and laborious process of trial and error. The foremost obstacle was the guidewire that was used to negotiate the catheter through the twists and turns of blood vessels via complicated vessel branches to the target lesion. After substantial research on suitable materials and designs, Terumo settled on a guidewire using a hydrophilic coating, receiving acclaim from physicians and catheter manufacturers in the U.S. where it was marketed.

In the 1980s, Japan's aging society saw burgeoning healthcare costs exerting pressure on the nation’s finances. The Japanese government announced a policy of reducing medical costs by enhancing preventive care, instead of waiting for health problems to develop before beginning treatment.

Terumo had historically focused on the manufacture and sale of devices for medical institutions, but these social changes in the mid-1980s introduced an opportunity to develop products for the healthcare management market. Terumo began devising a plan to contribute to disease prevention.
As people consume a richer, more varied diet and exercise less, diabetes, one of the identifiable lifestyle diseases, has become a worsening problem. Three ways to prevent the onset of diabetes are by following a healthier diet, exercising more, and regularly checking one’s blood glucose level.
In the early 1980s, Terumo began to develop urine test strips, but encountered various problems. One of the greatest concerns was larger vitamin intake by Japanese, who now consumed a richer and more varied diet. Urine test strips work by changing color in reaction to the presence of glucose, but vitamin C interferes with this process. In 1986, R&D efforts produced the Uri-Ace home-use urine test strip, which allowed glucose to effect a color change without interference from vitamin C.

Terumo began working on a PCPS system in 1989 after receiving a request for such a device from Dr. Floyd Loop of the Cleveland Clinic in the U.S. Terumo took on the challenge of developing a new product satisfying three conditions: Quick (maximum 5-minute setup), compact (portable for usage within an ambulance), and simple (providing minimal required functions).

This new venture produced a series of difficult challenges, such as destruction of red blood cells by the centrifugal pump and an imprecise blood flowmeter. Clinical use of the new system finally began in 1992 and physicians requested many changes, such as the inclusion of a heat exchanger, a pressure gauge, and a thermometer.
Terumo satisfied physicians’ needs with the Capiox EBS, launched in March 1995. In 1997, the new device won the 5th Best Technology Award from the Japanese Society for Artificial Organs.

Terumo’s prefilled syringe began as a solution to serious problems arising during treatment. One goal was to prevent administration of the wrong medicine after filling a syringe from ampules or vials to formulate an injection. Another was reducing the labor required to prepare such injections.The prefilled syringe was pre-loaded with the necessary drug or combination of drugs.

A product combining pharmaceuticals and syringes drew on Terumo’s expertise in both the medical device and pharmaceutical preparation fields, exemplifying the company’s forte. Prefilled syringes were already on the market outside Japan, but most were made of glass. Terumo set about developing a prefilled syringe that would combine the durability of plastic with its ease of disposal.
Terumo associates were in the midst of the prefilled syringe R&D process when the Great Hanshin/Awaji Earthquake struck the city of Kobe in January 1995. Many hospitals could not administer injections because their glass ampules had been damaged, severely limiting their ability to deliver emergency medical care. When physicians who had experienced the Great Hanshin/Awaji Earthquake finally saw one of Terumo’s plastic prefilled syringes, their message was unanimous: “We could have helped so many more people if only we’d had these syringes at the time of the disaster.”

Terumo decided that the pharmaceutical preparations loaded into its first prefilled syringes would include multivitamins, electrolytes, glucose, and other compounds used in infusions. Patients receiving high-calorie infusions require multivitamin supplements, with some also needing electrolytes and glucose. When these preparations are available in prefilled syringes, administration is easier and safer as it is difficult to mistake one for another.

In addition to providing high-quality and safe products, training those who lead and support modern healthcare is an important element of “Contributing to Society through Healthcare.
”The Terumo Medical Pranex” serves this purpose.

In June 2002, the west wing was opened, equipped with specialized rooms for physicians and clinical engineers to receive training in the proper use of interventional therapy and cardiovascular surgery products.In 2007, Terumo opened the east wing, which provides a realistic hospital setting with the latest medical facilities and devices along with myriad simulators.
Users may train in team-based medical treatment in a variety of realistic settings, including operating rooms. The facility serves to improve medical education along with governmental and academic efforts. Since its opening in January 2002, a total of more than 160,000 medical professionals and other individuals have visited the facility.

Terumo officially established Core Values as an ongoing effort to earn the trust of the global market amid global changes and serve as a foundation for its ongoing growth; the Core Values are shared by and connect Terumo associates worldwide.
The Core Values drive Terumo’s overall strengths across businesses and regions, serving to guide associates in making challenging decisions as they carry out their work.
The Terumo Group Code of Conduct was also revised to complement the Core Values. The Code of Conduct explains the standards of conduct with which all associates should comply, and guides all associates in maintaining correct conduct by holding themselves to the highest ethical standards.
As each associate conducts business activities according to this enhanced group identity, Terumo will further strive to be of even greater value to patients, medical professionals, and society at large.

Over the past 100 years, Terumo has faced a wide range of healthcare challenges and worked toward creating outstanding innovations that satisfy the needs of patients and medical professionals.
Today, we again recognize the role and importance of healthcare, and reaffirm our unchanging group mission of “Contributing to Society through Healthcare.”
We will always strive to bring about a better future for patients and medical professionals around the world, for as long as they need our products and services. This mission drives us powerfully as we stride ahead into the next 100 years.

Terumo Today (as of September 30, 2020)
Number of associates: 26,400
Number of production sites: 32
Number of consolidated subsidiaries: 103
Global network: over 160 countries and regions