News

JIC Venture Growth Investments (VGI) has acquired the shares in Restore Vision Inc.(Restore Vision), through its JIC Venture Growth Fund 2 (VGF2).

Restore Vision is a startup company founded in November 2016, based on promising results of a joint-research between Keio University School of Medicine and Nagoya Institute of Technology to develop a visual restoration gene therapy for blindness of retinal disorder. RV-001 is the lead product in the pipeline, using adeno-associated virus vectors with the unique functional gene coding ‘Chimeric Rhodopsin’ which is a protein-based optical sensor. Restore Vision takes a simple and minimally invasive approach, intravitreal injection, to deliver the therapeutic gene that will express chimeric rhodopsin in the remaining interneurons in retina, enabling the patient to see again.Many genetic retinal disorders have unmet medical needs of effective prevention and treatment. One of them is retinitis pigmentosa, the main target disease of RV-001, which is a designated intractable disease and the 2nd leading cause of blindness in Japan that afflicts millions of patients and families globally. Restore Vision’s mission is to deliver therapies at light speed to patients waiting for an effective treatment.

The significance of this investment is (1) to accelerate research and development with the aim of providing a visual restoration gene therapy for blindness, (2) to support social implementation and globalization of technology originated from Japanese universities and (3) to decrease drug lag/loss for the new drugs approved in Japan.

With this investment, VGI will support Restore Vision to develop the new pharmaceuticals globally and accelerate the social implementation of Japanese technology, contributing to Japanese society and economy.

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