For Immediate Release

Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd.
Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co., Ltd.

Daiichi Sankyo and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Launch New Open Innovation Business with Investment Fund

Tokyo, Japan(September 17, 2013)—Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Joji Nakayama; hereafter, Daiichi Sankyo) and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President: Kei Andoh; hereafter, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital) have agreed to launch a new open innovation business through the OiDE* Fund Investment Limited Partnership, established today and operated by Mitsubishi UFJ Capital.

 

For pharmaceutical companies that aim for breakthrough drug discoveries to meet the diverse medical needs of patients, it is crucial to acquire new platform technologies. Therefore, open innovation seeking the collaboration with university biotechnology ventures (hereafter, “ventures”) is becoming increasingly important.

 

Generally, venture investments involve investment from multiple funds for each company. This has made it difficult for certain pharmaceutical companies to lend exclusive scientific assistance to ventures since multiple pharmaceutical companies could invest in each fund.

 

With the open innovation business, Daiichi Sankyo and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital will seek out promising research results (hereafter, “seeds”) at Japanese universities that could potentially result in platform technologies. The OiDE fund will establish venture businesses that fund entire projects for promising seeds and fully assist in seed development. After development, if the venture meets predefined criteria for success, Daiichi Sankyo has rights and duties to purchase the venture’s stock or intellectual property at a price set in advance.

 

The OiDE fund established today features an investment of 100 million yen from Daiichi Sankyo. Mitsubishi UFJ Capital will be investing as much as 200 million yen, and the Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation has also pledged 450 million yen.

 

*OiDE: Open innovation for the Development of Emerging technologies

 

 

OiDE fund overview

Name	OiDE Fund Investment Limited Partnership
Total amount	1 billion yen
Equity investors	Daiichi Sankyo (100 million JPY), Mitsubishi UFJ Capital (up to 200 million JPY), Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, JAPAN (450 million JPY), others
Operating company	Mitsubishi UFJ Capital
Date of establishment	September 17, 2013
Investment outlets	・Target entities: Primarily venture businesses established from seeds held by Japanese universities within Japan ・Target seeds: Seeds for new disease treatment mechanisms, vaccines, nucleic acids, next generation antibodies, peptides, drug delivery systems (DDS), regenerative medicine/cell therapy, rare diseases ・Target stages: The stage before platform technology concept is reached, or before the disease mechanism is understood through non-clinical studies

 

 

The difference between a general venture investment fund and OiDE fund

 

 

 

Open Innovation Business logo

The logo integrates the strengths of both companies   and expresses the production of innovation through entrepreneurship. Design elements embedded in the logo include emotion (red), careful consideration (blue) and seeds of the earth (brown) that promise “germination” and “growth” (green) of new technologies.

 

 

For inquiries about this press release
Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. Corporate Communications Department Telephone: +81-3-6225-1126	Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co., Ltd. Planning Department Telephone: +81-3-5205-8581