DM Healthcare Investment
DMH Participates in Rege Nephro Series A
January 31, 2022
DMH participated in the Series A fundraising by Rege Nephro, a Japanese healthcare research company specialized in using nephron cells. A total of 1392 million yen was raised from multiple third-party partners:
Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co., Ltd., Kyoto University Innovation Capital Co., Ltd., JAFCO Group Co., Ltd., M3, Inc., Asahi Kasei Corporation, SMBC Venture Capital Co., Ltd., DM Capital Ltd., Healthcare Innovation Co., Ltd., Shimadzu Co., Ltd., Kyogin Lease & Capital Co., Ltd., Chushin Venture Capital Co., Ltd., and Yam Overseas Co., Ltd., a total of 12 companies participates as the company itself or the Investment Limited Partnership operated by the company.
Rege Nephro is a venture company established in September
2019 based on the research results of Professor Kenji Osafune of the Center for
iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University. Professor Osafune
has succeeded in establishing a technology for highly efficient production of
nephron progenitor cells from iPS cells, starting with the world's first
discovery of the existence of nephron progenitor cells, which are a type of renal
progenitor cells during the embryonic period.
The number of patients suffering from chronic kidney disease
(CKD) is consistently increasing with the aging of society, and the number of
CKD patients is 13% of the adult population in Japan, reaching about 13
million. There are few effective medicines and treatment techniques for
treating CKD at this time, except for kidney transplantation, which has a
serious donor shortage problem, and there is no choice but to provide
symptomatic treatment. When CKD worsens, dialysis becomes necessary, but the
number of dialysis patients is increasing year by year, and the current annual medical
expenses are over 1.5 trillion yen. The development of technology to improve
the symptoms of CKD and reduce the number of dialysis patients is an urgent
social issue.
The iPS cell-derived nephron progenitor cells invented by
Professor Osafune have been shown to improve renal damage in animal
experiments. In the future, Rege Nephro will work on the practical application
of cell medicine containing iPS cell-derived nephron progenitor cells as an
active ingredient, and aim to obtain regulatory approval for CKD as an
indication.
With this funding, Rege Nephro will be able to manufacture
non-clinical test formulations for the practical application of cell therapy
using iPS cell-derived renal progenitor cells and conduct non-clinical safety
studies using them. Rege Nephro will accelerate its business under the mission
of improving the quality of life (QOL) of patients suffering from kidney
disease and contributing to society.
More info can be found at: https://www.regenephro.co.jp/en/news/2022-1-31/