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News Releases 2007
Capital and Strategic Alliance with Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd. Formed by JapanBridge, a Specialty Pharmaceutical Company Founded jointly by ITOCHU Corporation and MPM Capital
September 25, 2007
JapanBridge, Inc., a venture-backed firm founded in November 2006 by ITOCHU Corporation and MPM Capital to develop and sell pharmaceuticals, has formed a capital and strategic alliance with Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Kyowa Hakko")
Oncology and oncology supportive care is targeted by JapanBridge as its initial areas of therapeutic focus, with a goal of in-licensing 2-4 oncology and/or oncology supportive care assets that could be co-funded, co-developed and co-promoted by Kyowa Hakko. Kyowa Hakko has also been committed to providing strategic assistance for Japanese regulatory, development, and marketing matters.
JapanBridge will select product candidates such as orphan drugs with a social significance and assets allowing the simultaneous global clinical development which would also be prioritized by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
Kyowa Hakko has made an investment in JapanBridge along with the existing shareholders, MPM Captial, the world's largest healthcare-dedicated venture capital group, and ITOCHU. ITOCHU and Kyowa Hakko each made outlays of US$1million for the just announced Series A-2 preferred financing by JapanBridge. Through this A-2 financing, JapanBridge raised an additional US$6.5million and will select in-licensing candidates, build an advisory board composed of Japanese and American oncology experts, and move the registry of its head office from the state of Delaware, U.S. to Japan.
JapanBridge has also hired Mr. Steve E. Engen, formerly the president of Mundipharma K.K. (hereinafter "Mundipharma"), a leading pharmaceuticals firm, to serve as its chief executive officer (CEO). Mr. Engen established and built Mundipharma's Japanese operation from scratch to an operation of 70 staff in Tokyo and Osaka. Under his leadership, JapanBridge intends to select products under development for licensing into Japan, and advance clinical development in Japan and other Asian countries. To acquire the in-licensing candidate and further advance the clinical development, it is planning additional financing of Series B from not only the Japanese investors but also from European, and U.S. institutional investors.
Along with this additional financing, we at ITOCHU are sending personnel to JapanBridge as the Vice President of Corporate Development. The strategy is to extend assistance not only for the start-up of the company but also for collaboration with Kyowa Hakko, selection of the management team, coordination with CROs and CMOs, fund-raising and other matters.
ITOCHU is also going to continue participating in JapanBridge with a view to developing business in pharmaceutical intermediates, dispatch of medical representatives (MRs), clinical trial, development tools and software, and logistics in addition to the objective of capital gain through future initial public offering (IPO) or merger & acquisition (M&A).
Emphasizing biopharmaceutical business in the field of advanced technology, we invested a total of US$35million dollars in outlays for the MPM BioVentures 3 fund in 2002 and the MPM BioVentures 4 fund in 2006. By providing continued support for the growth of JapanBridge together with MPM, we intend to heighten our presence in the biopharmaceutical industry. We have positioned JapanBridge as the core of our biopharmaceutical business, and hope to launch similar bioventures in the future.
Reference
JapanBridge, Inc.
U.S. office |
1209 Orange Street, Wilmington, Delaware, USA |
|---|---|
Japan office |
Building A 28th floor, Shinagawa Intercity, 2-15-1, Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo |
Founded |
November 2006 |
Capital |
US$7.8 million |
Management |
Steve Engen, CEO |
Investor |
MPM Capital, ITOCHU, Kyowa Hakko |
Board members |
|
MPM Capital
Head office |
John Hancock Tower, 54th Floor 200 Clarendon Street Boston, MA, USA |
|---|---|
Founded |
1992 |
Founder |
Dr. Ansbert Gadicke |
Number of GP |
8 people |
Managing assets |
$2.4 billion |
Number of companies investing |
70 |
Outline |
Founded in Boston, U.S. in 1992, MPM Capital is the world's largest bioventure capital group. It manages a total of more than 2.4 billion dollars and has investments in about 70 bioventures engaged in the drug discovery. Its eight general partners include the top bioventure capitalists in all of the United States and former executives of big major pharmaceutical companies and bio firms. Similarly, the membership of its 12-member advisory board consists of a winner of the Nobel Prize for medical physiology, the former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a professor of medicine at Harvard University, and other personnel of genuine stature. |
