Japan-based cancer therapy developer J-Pharma has increased a series D round that included corporates KNC Laboratories, Kisco, Ohara Pharmaceutical, Spera Pharma and SRD Holdings to $21m.
The second tranche of the round involved ¥500m ($4.8m) from Eight Roads Ventures and F-Prime Capital Partners, both venture capital vehicles for investment and financial services group Fidelity.
The July 2020 first close included contract manufacturing firm KNC, chemicals trading firm Kisco and pharmaceutical firms Ohara, Spera and SRD Holdings.
Sansei Capital Investment, MBL Venture Capital, Fidea Capital, Iwagin Jigyo Souzou Capital, Mizuho Capital and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital also took part, on behalf of insurance firm Mitsui Life, life sciences conglomerate JSR’s Medical & Biological Laboratories unit and financial services firms Fidea, Bank of Iwate, Mizuho Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group respectively.
Startup incubator KSP, Kyushu University’s QB Capital unit, Osaka University-affiliated Osaka University Venture Capital and venture capital firms Newton Biocapital and Nippon Venture Capital filled out the first close.
Founded in 2005 by retired Kyorin University professor Hitoshi Endō, J-Pharma is working on drugs based on solute carrier (SLC) transporters, which are proteins that carry substances across biological membranes.
The company’s lead product candidate, LAT1/SLC7A5, leverages a subtype of SLC transporters known as L-type amino acid transporters to treat advanced cancers that have become resistant to chemotherapies.
Ohara had already provided funding for J-Pharma in April 2019 that followed a similarly undisclosed amount from Iwagin Jigyo Souzou Capital the year before.
