Looking forward to some businesses that look ordinary and bring us different surprises.
Original
Some time ago, a news about the purchase of new crown vaccine raw materials from Japanese Yamasa soy sauce by American pharmaceutical companies attracted people's attention.
The raw materials were purchased by Pfizer and Modena.
They are all world-renowned pharmaceutical giants, why should they buy raw materials from soy sauce factories?
How does Japanese Yamasa soy sauce cross borders?
To understand why, we must first understand how covid-19 vaccines are made.
In today's COVID-19 vaccine market, a wide variety of products have emerged. These vaccines can be broadly divided into two types: inactivated vaccines and mRNA vaccines.
Among them, inactivated vaccines are the most traditional way, which cultivates the virus in vitro, and then makes the virus inactive, making it harmless to the human body, so that the human body produces antibodies to the virus, so as to achieve the effect of fighting the epidemic.
China's Kexing vaccine is an inactivated vaccine.
The COVID-19 vaccines of Pfizer and Modena belong to mRNA vaccines.
In its production process, there is no need to use the virus, but directly encodes and changes the genetic sequence of the synthetic protein to obtain a vaccine.
Compared with inactivated vaccines, mRNA is more productive and less costly, but the requirements for storage and transportation environments are higher.
Not only that, but after the mRNA vaccine is injected into the human body, it may cause the skin to become inflamed due to the immune response.
Research by American biologist Carrick has shown that adding pseudouridine to vaccines can slow down the immune system's rejection and enhance resistance to mRNA proteins.
Uridine and pseudouridine
The raw material that the US pharmaceutical company wants to buy from Shansa Company this time is pseudouridine.
Yamasa is an important producer of pseudouridine, and they have been exporting fake uridine since 1980.
But historically, only some labs will buy for academic research purposes.
Today, the huge demand from Pfizer and Modena will undoubtedly bring a large number of orders to Shanzuo Company, making it a big profit.
The Wall Street Journal said Pfizer will produce 4 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine next year
This is really a big unexpected order.
So, what kind of company is Yamasa soy sauce?
Like many Japanese food companies, Yamasa Corporation is a family-owned company with a long history.
As early as 1645, the merchant Yoshihei Hamaguchi founded Yamasa soy sauce in what is now Chiba Prefecture called Choshi City, which has a history of 376 years.
By the 19th century, Yamasa soy sauce had accumulated considerable wealth, and even had the strength to participate in the construction of seawalls and the establishment of public projects such as schools and hospitals.
During the reign of the head of the family, Hamaguchi, Yamasa also established the only Western medical research institute in Tokyo at that time. This institute was the predecessor of today's University of Tokyo School of Medicine.
The predecessor of the Todai Medical College was a research institute in Yamasa
After the Meiji Restoration, Hamaguchi Not only expanded its influence in the field of soy sauce, but also vigorously befriended a number of high-ranking politicians.
He became the speaker of Wakayama Prefecture, and his influence spread across both the political and business circles, and he ate the benefits of Japan's modern industrialization.
Yamasa soy sauce was also brought to the Meiji Emperor's table, greatly enhancing its brand status.
It can be seen that Shansa Company belongs to the old enterprises that have "been wide in the ancestors".
The business of Yamasa soy sauce can flourish, not only thanks to the accumulation of previous generations and the connections of both political and business circles, but also inseparable from the factors of innovation and development.
Yamasaki soy sauce
In the beginning, Yamasa soy sauce was mainly produced with traditional Japanese salty soy sauce. After World War II, they successively produced a variety of flavors of "organic soy sauce", which greatly enriched the taste of the product.
Not only that, but they also expanded the market to the whole world after the war. Factories were built in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Because the customers of Yamasa soy sauce at that time were not limited to Asia, North America also became an important market for Yamasa.
Yamasa Corporation's plant in Oregon, USA
Some people may wonder, North Americans, who are mainly fast food and traditional Western food, should not have a demand for soy sauce, right?
In fact, even americans had a need for innovation in condiments after World War II, such as ketchup and black pepper, which appeared during this period.
In principle, North America does not naturally reject Japanese soy sauce.
According to the local conditions, according to the tastes of North Americans, Yamasa Company has developed soy sauce suitable for Western food, and has gained a place in the North American market.
According to the company, their aim is to "make the taste of Japan go global."
With a turnover of 58.1 billion yen in december 2020, Yamasa corporation is the second largest soy sauce merchant in Japan.
The Japanese soy sauce market share is distributed, Yamasa is Yamasa
Yamasa is not satisfied with the development of the soy sauce field, they also set their sights on the biochemical field.
As early as the 1880s, Yamasa had established a professional laboratory.
After all, whether it's producing soy sauce or improving the taste of soy sauce, you need to deal with a wide variety of microorganisms.
To improve the taste of soy sauce, it is inseparable from the understanding of biology and chemistry.
By studying the nucleotide structure of different foods such as kelp, shiitake mushrooms, and fish, Yamasa's soy sauce taste has made many breakthroughs.
Some condiments synthesized by Yamasa
However, at that time, the research institute mainly served the taste of soy sauce, rather than focusing on the field of biochemistry.
When Michio Hamaguchi took office, Yamasa increased his investment in the field of biochemistry.
After all, soy sauce, like other food industries, is a low-barrier industry. Moreover, since the new century, the rise of Chinese soy sauce manufacturers has also affected the market share of Japanese soy sauce merchants.
Yamasa needs to find a more promising path outside the traditional field of soy sauce, and it is a good choice to devote himself to the biochemical world.
Yamasa global manufacturer distribution map
With his support, Yamasa launched a batch of biomimetics, bringing new economic growth points to the company.
For example, the bionic drug imidazolybin synthesized by Yamasa has the excellent effect of inhibiting antibodies and is widely used in the field of organ transplantation.
The adenosine synthesized by Yamasa, which can effectively treat viral meningitis, chickenpox and herpes zoster, has also been widely used.
Not only that, some of the adenosine and cytidine products synthesized by Yamasa have been applied to milk powder, cosmetics and other fields, and have also achieved good results.
Pseudouridine is one of them.
It was because of the strength of the biochemical department that Yamasa was able to win the order to supply the new crown vaccine.
Some of Yamasa's bionic medicinal products
Although today, Yamasa's revenue is only about one-tenth of the contribution of the biochemical department.
After taking orders from Pfizer and Modena, the improvement in the biochemical field will be obvious.
It is not difficult to see from the development process of Sansa that its ability to achieve today's achievements is closely related to the pioneering and innovative spirit of generations of leaders.
If Yamasa hadn't thought about improving his taste and going into the biochemical field, he would have been an ordinary Japanese soy sauce dealer today.
There will also be no capacity to supply COVID-19 vaccine raw materials to biopharmaceutical companies today.
Of course, the soy sauce factory, do a good job of soy sauce, do a good job is already very good.
What we are more looking forward to is that some seemingly ordinary enterprises will bring us different surprises.
China's soy sauce companies must also work harder!