IP Generator, Inc., (“IPG”) and National Research and Development Institute, RIKEN (“RIKEN”), based in Saitama, Japan, have entered into a Drug Discovery Alliance Agreement (“this agreement”) dated June 3, 2022. This agreement, executed with the support of RIKEN Innovation Co., Ltd. (RIKEN Innovation), establishes a formal framework for the incorporation of promising drug target leads from RIKEN into IPG’s drug discovery platform.
The program enables RIKEN to propose drug seeds to IPG for identification and development of lead compounds or modalities with the goal of licensing clinical development candidates to pharmaceutical companies. IPG aims for the efficient creation of innovative medicines and hopes to contribute to solving global social issues by reducing healthcare costs and expanding access to medicine.
For patients, personalized medicine holds great promise for the effective treatment and prevention of disease. For the pharmaceutical industry, personalized medicine provides the opportunity to achieve substantial clinical advances by tailoring treatments to the genes and personal circumstances that make every patient different.
The increasing ability to distinguish between molecular subtypes and individual variations of disease puts growing demand on R&D to provide a wide variety of drugs to meet the individual medical needs of small group of patients. The smaller market size for highly personalized treatments requires increasingly efficient drug development.
In an effort to fast-track the development of highly personalized treatments that target known disease markers, IPG will invite global academia, pharmaceutical companies, and other entities to submit promising drug leads. This agreement between IPG and RIKEN is considered to be the significant step toward the accelerated incorporation of drug discovery seeds from academia.
“RIKEN has been focusing on novel modalities and new targets for medical unmet needs. We recognize that this collaboration with IPG will further draw out the strengths of RIKEN and promote an efficient shift to social value in cooperation with RIKEN Innovation.” Hiroshi Okazaki, Director of the RIKEN Program for Drug Discovery and Medical Technology Platforms states.
“It is our great pleasure and honor to have this agreement with RIKEN which is one of the most prestigious institutes in the world.” Mr. Satoru Iino, President and CEO of IPG states. “This enables IPG to access to promising drug discovery seeds and to create highly innovative medicines. In this sense, IPG moves forward to contributing to solving the global social issues such as high healthcare costs and to extending the healthy life expectancy.”
[About IPG]
IPG was established on October 26, 2021, as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Healthcare New Platform Fund where Whiz. Partners Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Atsushi Matsumura) has been the general partner. IPG will generate composition of matter patents for new chemical entities by conducting non-clinical research and development activities and make variety of transactions mainly with pharmaceutical companies. IPG has already concluded a comprehensive partnership agreement with Axcelead, Inc. and Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners, Inc. (http://ip-g.com/jp/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/0c91379ab46f05f47d691359e8e8c721.pdf) . By collaborating among the parties to build a next stage drug discovery platform, it would be possible to generate high quality innovative pharmaceuticals in a shorter period of time and lower cost. As for the pharmaceutical industry, the trend of the horizontal division of labor business model would be more accelerating. IPG plays a role as a platformer for creating pre-clinical stage innovative new medicines.
[About RIKEN]
RIKEN is Japan’s largest and most comprehensive research organization for basic and applied science and a world leader in a diverse array of scientific disciplines. For nearly a century since its foundation in 1917, RIKEN has fostered pioneering, innovative research in fields spanning the entire range of the natural sciences, from developmental biology and neuroscience to quantum physics and computer science. Today, RIKEN encompasses a network of world-class research centers across Japan, with main campuses in Wako, Tsukuba, Yokohama, Kobe and Harima offering state-of-the-art facilities that rank among the best in the world. This high-quality, high-performance research environment, combined with a uniquely bottom-up approach to scientific innovation, has enabled RIKEN to foster an environment in which researchers are able to thrive. RIKEN is also an international institute, with more than 600 non-Japanese research personnel from around the world.
[About RIKEN Innovation]
On September 5, 2019, RIKEN Innovation was established as a company wholly owned by RIKEN under a new law to promote science, technology, and innovation. RIKEN Innovation cooperates and collaborates closely with RIKEN, having the mission of rapidly returning research results as value to society and contributing to Japanese innovation. For details, see https://www.innovation-riken.jp/en.