News

JIC Venture Growth Investments (VGI) decided acquiring the shares in Metagen Therapeutics, Inc. (Metagen Therapeutics), through its JIC Venture Growth Fund 2 (VGF2).

Metagen Therapeutics, founded in 2020, is a company that aims to enable innovative medicine and pharmaceuticals through cutting-edge microbiome* science. In recent years, significant progress has been made in the study of the gut microbiota* and its relationship to various diseases such as cancer, ulcerative colitis, Parkinson's disease, and allergies becomes clearer. Most recently, microbiome drug discovery has reached a major turning point with the approval of microbiome drug discovery all over the world. Metagen Therapeutics is promoting the social implementation of the first "Fecal MicrobiotaTransplantation (FMT)" and "Microbiome drug discovery" in Japan through the establishment of the microflora bank.

The purpose of VGI's investment in Metagen Therapeutics is to realize the social implementation of FMT in Japan and contribute to the realization of a healthy and long-lived society in Japan through the development of internationally competitive microbiome drugs from Japan by means of reverse translational research** based on FMT.

VGI would like to support Metagen Therapeutics to accelerate the research and developmentand contribute to the revitalization of the bio-venture ecosystem in Japan with the advanced examples creation of social implementation of new modalities.

^{*It means a diverse collection of microorganisms that exist in humans, animals, plants, and other organisms, as well as in the environment, including soil, water, and air.}

^{**It means practical research methods that conduct basic and clinical research from a clinical perspective to derive results that can be applied to actual clinical practice.}

^{The information contained in this notice is current at the time of publication and subject to change without notice.}