Haruo Naito, the CEO of the Eisai Company, a major Japanese pharmaceutical company, has given one billion yen -- equivalent to more than $8 million -- to construct a new building for the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jeremy R. Knowles announced this week that Naito was moved by his company's long association with Harvard Professor Yoshito Kishi and by the high quality of students and the research of the Harvard department.

"We are honored to accept this marvelously thoughtful and generous gift," Knowles said. "The Naito Building will emphasize the scientific and educational links between Japan and the United States and will make possible the long-awaited expansion of the department's facilities."

The gift will allow a major addition to the department to be built, linking two venerable buildings erected in the 1920s and 1930s: the Mallinckrodt Laboratory and the Converse Laboratory. For many years this hoped-for addition was affectionately known as the "Knuckle," as it would join the two older buildings and provide much-needed research and teaching space for the department. Naito's gift will bring these hopes to fruition, and planning for the project will begin immediately.

ÒThis is welcome news,Ó cheered department chair David Evans, Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Chemistry. ÒThe department has confronted a space shortage for some time that has prevented it from reaching its full complement of faculty.

"This gift provides the opportunity for us to grow in the areas of organic and biological, physical, and inorganic chemistry," Evans continued. "We want to build strength in all of those areas."

Since 1988, Haruo Naito has been president and CEO of the Eisai Company in Tokyo, which was founded by his grandfather and which has grown dramatically in the past few years. The company focuses on the products of its own original research.

After graduating from Keio University, Naito came to the U.S. and earned his M.B.A. at Northwestern, returning to Japan to join Eisai in 1975. He says that in leading his company, Naito relies on "managing serendipity," which has led to the growth of the company into a leading pharmaceutical house, and to the development of drugs for Alzheimer's disease and of products to treat heart attacks and bacterial infection.

In the 1980s, Eisai established a laboratory in Andover, Mass., that is guided by Yoshito Kishi, the Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry. The success of this laboratory in research and discovery prompted Naito to support Kishi's Harvard department, recognizing the importance of training new generations of talented and creative students in chemistry and chemical biology.