Fukui Tateami Co., Ltd.

Fukui Tateami Kogyo Corporation (hereafter referred to as 'the company'), founded in 1944 and literally based in Fukui City, is a long-established company that has 'accumulated technologies for knitting various fibres, from natural fibres to synthetic fibres', with the manufacture of warp knitted fabrics as its core business. 　Believing in the unlimited potential of its weaving technology, one of the results of the 'Make Your Dream Come True Project', the 'Heart Repair Patch', was approved for production and marketing by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare last month (July 2023). 　The company's president, Mr Takagi, was asked by Prof Nemoto of Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University whether it was possible to create a patch that would complete the operation in a single session. Positively responding to Mr.Nemoto, Mr. Takagi started the project to develop the material as requested in 2014, involving Teijin. According to the company's webpage, conventional patches "have issues with deterioration and extensibility, and depending on the surgical technique, the reality is that approximately 50% of children undergo re-operation in five years", and the heart repair patch, which has been approved by the MHLW this time, is expected to expand as the heart grows and avoid re-operation. The patch which is expected to expand as the heart grows, thus avoiding reoperation, seems truly to be a breakthrough product, and “the dream has come true”. 　I would like to pay tribute to the company, which has created several new products in the medical field by using and developing its technologies accumulated in the textile business field, and I hope that many more dreams will come true in the future. (AS)