Advancing Japan’s academic biotech through global partnerships and support for real-world therapeutic development
BOSTON & TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alloy Therapeutics Co. Ltd. (“Alloy Japan”) today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Kansai Startup Academia Coalition (“KSAC”), represented by Kyoto University, to foster the global expansion of university-affiliated life science startups across Japan. This strategic collaboration is designed to accelerate research and development (R&D) activities by providing critical support and connecting academic innovations with the global biopharmaceutical industry.
KSAC is a coalition of more than 90 academic institutions located in western Japan, formed under the leadership of Kyoto University and with support from Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). KSAC’s mission is to bridge academia and industry by managing GAP funds for research, delivering entrepreneurship education, supporting digital workshop networks, and showcasing early-stage technologies through events and exhibitions both domestically and internationally.
Alloy Therapeutics Inc. (“Alloy”) is a Boston-based biotechnology ecosystem company that democratizes access to foundational biologics discovery technologies. Through its suite of platform technologies and discovery services as well as its venture studio, 82VS, Alloy enables scientists and entrepreneurs around the world to accelerate the discovery of medicines. Alloy recently launched its Japan subsidiary, Alloy Japan, which is focused on iPS cell therapy development and is continuing to broaden its offerings by supporting ecosystem growth throughout Japan and greater Asia.
Through this MOU, Alloy Japan and KSAC will collaborate to connect promising academic seeds from Japan to global Biopharma markets, while also bringing valuable insights from the global community back to strengthen Japan’s startup ecosystem. Together, they aim to enrich critical capabilities across Japan’s academic and entrepreneurial communities to foster the development of globally competitive life science startups.
“Alloy’s capabilities and global network bring a highly complementary strength to our mission of empowering academic startups to compete internationally. Alloy Japan offers a highly distinct and complementary contribution to our activities with Global Incubators and Venture Capital firms,” said Koji Murota, Director-General of the Office of Institutional Advancement and Communications at Kyoto University, representing KSAC. “By collaborating with ecosystem builders like Alloy Japan, we can provide our researchers and entrepreneurs with access to additional scientific resources, global Biopharma insights, and opportunities to scale their innovations beyond Japan.”
As a first step, Alloy Japan will support KSAC’s GAP Fund program, which provides funding to selected academic projects within the KSAC network. Over the three-year term of the MOU, the collaboration is expected to expand to additional KSAC initiatives aimed at building a globally integrated and innovation-driven biotech community.
“Our collaboration with KSAC builds on Alloy Japan’s commitment to deep, sovereign partnerships that nurture innovation at the academic and early translational stages,” said Victor Stone (Yoshihide Ishii), CEO of Alloy Japan. “By working alongside KSAC and its network of universities, we aim to strengthen the bridge between Japanese academic excellence and the Biopharma ecosystem, accelerating the global growth of life science startups.”
About Alloy Therapeutics Inc.
Alloy Therapeutics is a biotechnology ecosystem company empowering the global scientific community to make better medicines together. Through a community of partners across academia, biotech, and the largest biopharma, Alloy democratizes access to pre-competitive tools, technologies, services, and company creation capabilities that are foundational for discovering and developing therapeutic biologics across six modalities: antibodies, TCRs, genetic medicines, peptides, cell therapies, and drug delivery. As a reflection of Alloy’s relentless commitment to the scientific community, Alloy reinvests 100% of its revenue in innovation and access to innovation.
Headquartered in Boston, MA, Alloy operates globally with discovery laboratories in multiple locations, including Japan. Its Japanese subsidiary, Alloy Japan, located at Shonan Health Innovation Park in Kanagawa Prefecture and led by Victor Stone (Yoshihide Ishii), supports cell therapy initiatives and broader ecosystem activities in the region.
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About KSAC & Kyoto University
The Kansai Startup Academia Coalition (KSAC), led by leading research institution Kyoto University, is a nationwide initiative dedicated to promoting the internationalization and growth of startups originating from Japanese universities.
Contacts
Media Contacts:
Alloy Therapeutics Inc.
Takehiro Okumura
General Manager and Head of Quality, Cell Therapies
alloy.japan@alloytx.com
Chris Bedi
Head of Strategic Marketing and Product Management
communications@alloytx.com
