Epistra Contributes Article on "AI-Robot-Driven Drug Development" to Pharmacia, Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan

Taku Tsuzuki, CTO, and Yosuke Ozawa, CEO of Epistra Inc. (headquartered in Tokyo), contributed an article titled “Accelerating Drug Development with AI-Robot-Driven Approaches” to Pharmacia, the journal of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (a public interest incorporated association), Vol. 62 No. 7 (published July 1, 2026, pp. 670–672). The article appears as part of the issue’s special feature, “Frontiers in Robotics and Automation.”

About the Special Feature

Pharmacia is a monthly journal published by the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan. Vol. 62 No. 7 (published July 1, 2026) carries the special feature theme “Frontiers in Robotics and Automation,” covering trends in the use of robotics and automation in research and manufacturing settings.

About the Article

In the article, Tsuzuki and Ozawa present the concept of “AI-robot-driven drug development,” which combines large-scale generation of high-quality data by robots with AI-driven experimental design, addressing the “high-dimensional, high-noise, high-cost” challenges facing new drug development. Robots reduce variability in experimental operations to generate highly reproducible data, and AI then uses that data to derive the next experimental conditions from a high-dimensional search space. The AI component is provided by Epistra’s experimental condition optimization AI, “Epistra Accelerate.” This approach has already delivered results in a joint case study with Astellas Pharma Inc. on NK cell therapeutics (announced March 2025).

Going forward, Tsuzuki and Ozawa believe that this “AI-robot-driven” concept will extend beyond manufacturing processes to the entire drug discovery value chain, including target discovery and drug repositioning.

Publication Details

• Journal: Pharmacia (journal of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan)
• Issue: Vol. 62, No. 7 (published July 1, 2026), pp. 670–672
• Special feature: Frontiers in Robotics and Automation
• Authors: Taku Tsuzuki, Yosuke Ozawa (Epistra Inc.)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.14894/faruawpsj.62.7_670