BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

Regenerative reservoir

Sosei launching Japan seed fund to access regenerative medicine technologies

June 10, 2013 7:00 AM UTC

Sosei Group Corp. (Tokyo:4565) is launching a ¥2 billion ($19.9 million) seed fund to invest in Japanese regenerative medicine companies that will give the portfolio companies time to mature their technologies - and Sosei time to build its war chest - to enable licensing deals or acquisitions.

CFO Hidetoshi Torami said Sosei expects to have significant royalty income in the next five years from Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN), the biotech's partner for NVA237 for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). But, he said, "if we enter regenerative medicine in three or five years when we have more financial strength, big pharmas will probably be there and we'll be too late."...