 His research group was finally able to successfully create Donepezil with a promising enough profile for the compound to become a drug candidate.Sugimoto was born as the eighth child among nine children in a downtown section of Tokyo in 1943, and joined Eisai, a Japanese pharmaceutical company.While working for Eisai, he graduated from Chuo University in 1969 and obtained his doctorate in pharmacology at Hiroshima University in 2002.