The business activities that formed the foundation of Biozipcode, Inc. began around 2015, when StudioMakyu, Inc., led by Representative Director Fumihisa Kojima, established a laboratory at the Bio-Innovation Center as part of a joint research initiative with the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Shiga University of Medical Science, where Hideto Kojima served as Professor and now serves as Distinguished Professor.

From the outset, StudioMakyu supported not only conventional wet-lab research, including in vivo and in vitro studies, but also in silico research and development. This included the use of bioinformatics tools such as BLAST, the development of proprietary software, and large-scale computation using general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU).

Biozipcode, Inc. was established in January 2022 to take over the joint research previously conducted with StudioMakyu. In April 2022, a joint research laboratory within the Department of Regenerative Medicine Development was established at Shiga University of Medical Science. Its work focuses on developing novel therapies aimed at curing difficult-to-treat diseases, including diabetes, and establishing new therapeutic approaches using cell-targeting peptides known as Biozipcode.

Merchant Bankers Co., Ltd. pledged an investment of JPY 100 million and assistance in raising approximately JPY 10 billion to support this initiative. However, citing delays in the peer review of the laboratory’s research paper, the company delayed payment of joint research funding for more than six months and refused to make payments. Payments to the patent firm handling the patent applications also remained outstanding, and the company subsequently gave notice of its intention to terminate the joint research agreement. In response, Fumihisa Kojima purchased all shares on the condition that he reimburse the total JPY 40 million disbursed by Merchant Bankers Co., Ltd., together with the patent application costs, to ensure the continuation of the joint research department. To date, more than JPY 150 million has also been spent on research and related expenses.

In June 2023, the study “Complete remission of diabetes with a transient HDAC inhibitor and insulin in streptozotocin mice” (Complete Remission of Diabetes in Mice) was published in Communications Biology. Biozipcode, Inc. has since been increasing its joint research funding and accelerating research activities. Procedures are currently underway to continue the research into fiscal year 2024 and beyond, while business partnerships and joint projects with pharmaceutical companies and other organizations are also being considered.

Please refer to the following URL for the announcement issued by Merchant Bankers Co., Ltd.
https://www.nikkei.com/nkd/disclosure/tdnr/20230227518853/