At JPM Conference 2025, we held a reception to connect Japanese and U.S. investors with biotech companies!

The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPM Conference), one of the world's largest healthcare investment symposiums, was held in San Francisco from January 13 to 16, 2025. During this event, which brings together professionals involved in the healthcare industry from around the world, Eisai Eisai Co-hosted by its U.S. subsidiary, SNBL USA, and SBI US Gateway Fund, to bring together stakeholders who will lead the global drug discovery ecosystem of the future (institutional investors in Japan and the United States, A reception was held on Wednesday, January 15 at the Hilton Hotel in San Francisco, where leading players in the biotech industry gathered and exchanged information.

According to BioCentury, a media specializing in the field of drug development, this year's JPM conference featured an event with a cross-border theme, and our SNBL Global Gateway initiative to connect stakeholders in Japan and the U.S. was a very timely project. The reception was attended by a wide variety of people, including about 40 institutional investors from Japan and the United States, more than 70 executives from biotech and start-up companies, experts in the U.S. biotechnology industry, business development personnel of major pharmaceutical companies, research institutions such as universities, and government officials such as JETRO San Francisco Office and AMED (National Agency Japan for Medical Research and Development). It was a very successful event with a total of about 190 people. This includes the founders and executives of Wave Life Sciences and Satsuma Pharmaceuticals, which we founded and listed on the Nasdaq market. Ryoichi Nagata, Chairman and President, Ken Takanashi, Executive Vice President Ken Naganashi, Executive Vice President Ichiro Nagata, and representatives from the New Business and Investment Division attended the meeting.

Speaking on behalf of the organizers, Chairman Nagata said, "Since 2000, Japan has the second largest number of Nobel Prize winners in the natural sciences after the United States, and has achieved many achievements in science and technology. In addition, according to one study, the impact of Japan's cancer-related patents is the highest in the world. These are testament to Japan's high level of technological capabilities. However, on the other hand, the reality is that there are fewer cases of products and services that are widely used around the world being born in Japan than in the United States. The challenge is that while they have high technological capabilities, they do not have a sufficient environment to connect them to business. In other words, despite the fact that there are many seeds of innovation in Japan, there is a lack of mechanisms to nurture them, and there are many opportunities that remain dormant. What is needed to solve this problem is excellent management personnel who can make use of their technological capabilities and the capital to create new products. Therefore, we wanted to accelerate efforts for Japan startups to enter the U.S. market and work hand in hand with American investors, managers, and experts to spread Japan's excellent technology to the world. At the same time, we will support American entrepreneurs with excellent technology to enter the Japan market. Through these activities, we hope to support the growth of the life sciences industry in both the U.S. and Japan." I said.

We received a lot of positive feedback from the participants, such as "It was a very good opportunity to connect with investors, BD (business development) people, and biotechs" and "I would like to have specific consultations on business development from the U.S. to Japan and from Japan to the U.S."