Medtec Grand Prix KOBE2023 From the Greetings from the President of the Jury
Cheno Hanai, Director, Liverness Capital Co.
Let's make friends, not company to company.
Hello everyone. My name is Hanai, and I am the chairman of the Screening Committee today. Let me first introduce myself. I am currently a director of Liverness Capital, but previously I served as president and chairman of Kyowa Hakko, the predecessor of Kyowa Kirin.
Originally, I was a corporate researcher and had long been involved in antibody drug research for 40 years. At that time, the company did not readily recognize the value of my research, and I was in an outsider's position. Nevertheless, in the early 2000s, I obtained investment from the company and established a venture company called BioWa in New Jersey, USA. The licensing-out business of the antibody technology developed by BioWa and the clinical development of antibody drugs incorporating that technology were very successful, contrary to the expectations of the parent company, which invested in the company, and since then my fate has changed.
When I think about the reasons for our success, I think one of them was the environment of the biotech community in the United States. When you go to the U.S. and start a venture, they immediately let you into this biotech community. You are one of us. The community is a personal connection and does not represent the company. There are people from venture companies, people from mega-pharma companies, people from big biotech companies. They put you in the company of those communities. Through those relationships, contracts and other discussions went smoothly.
What RIVERNESS is trying to do here is also the same kind of "peer building" that I experienced in the community in the United States. To all of you here today, venture capitalists, university professors, and judges who are here on behalf of your companies, I invite you to think of each other as colleagues. I urge you to think of each other as colleagues today. Let's bring together our knowledge, skills, and passion to solve the problems we face.
In the post-Corona era, the speed of drug development accelerates
Here's a story on a larger scale. Why do we value life? Let us consider it from the starting point of the universe and the earth. It is said that 4.6 billion years have passed since the earth was born, and 3.5 billion years since the birth of life, single-cell organisms. Multicellular organisms were born about 600 million years ago.
What happens when multicellular organisms are born and then divide into males and females to reproduce? Genetic recombination occurred in the germ cells, meiosis occurred, and an explosion of diversity occurred, thus beginning the evolution of organisms that would lead to the birth of our species. In exchange, organisms began to get sick, age, and die.
We Homo sapiens are actually special in some ways. Most animals die when they lose the ability to reproduce. Homo sapiens, however, have a long life span afterwards, even when they lose the ability to reproduce. The reason for this is the "grandmother hypothesis. Grandmothers are able to protect their own families and raise children with their knowledge and experience even after they lose their reproductive capacity. In other words, it is a hypothesis that Homo sapiens has evolved and prospered because of grandmothers. By the way, as for "what did grandpa do?", I don't know either (laughs).
Valuing life is critical to our ability to evolve and thrive. And when we humans talk about valuing life, we are talking about medicine. With regard to the history of medicine, we know that there are records in ancient Egypt and ancient Greece that show that medicine was improved by combining the latest science and the latest technology of those times.
This process has been repeated endlessly, and until the 21st century, a great many drugs have been developed. Having spent many years in the drug industry and having witnessed the development of so many good drugs, I had irreverently assumed that many diseases would eventually disappear. Just as I was thinking this, the Corona disaster occurred.
Catalin Carrico and Drew Weissman won the Nobel Prize for the development of an mRNA vaccine that can prevent coronavirus infection. If this vaccine had not been available, would we really have survived the coronas? I believe this is a big question.
In the post-Corona era, as someone who has lived and worked in the pharmaceutical industry, I believe that drug development will probably become extremely fast-paced. With the establishment of the early approval system and the provisional approval system, pharmaceutical companies will have to considerably accelerate the speed of drug development. At that time, the combination of venture companies, large companies, and medium-sized companies such as listed start-ups will be the key. I think it is important to make friends in this very forum where you are gathered now.
Another thing is that while we humans have prospered, we have also destroyed the environment by our selfish behavior. Nowadays, the earth is faced with a mountain of challenges and difficulties. Therefore, I believe that preserving life and realizing our contribution to the earth must be on the same line. I believe that we need to seriously consider this in this post-corona era.
Changing the world through "knowledge manufacturing
Again, the world has a mountain of challenges. There is a lot of discussion about the future of humanity being in jeopardy if things continue as they are. At RIVANES, we have created this TechPlanter framework to solve unsolved issues, which we call deep issues, with science and technology.
Science and technology may be a small force one by one. However, if multiple players bring together their knowledge, technology, and passion to create a collective entity, or "deep tech," we may be able to solve even the most difficult problems. We believe that the MedTech Grand Prix is a place where deep issues can be encountered and deep tech can be created.
The Tech Planter is an initiative that RIVANES started in 2014. The number of teams entered in Japan and Asia has already exceeded 3,500. This means that we have 3,500 colleagues. This year, RIVANES has declared that "knowledge manufacturing" is its legitimate business. What is knowledge manufacturing? We define it as "creating new knowledge by combining knowledge with knowledge, and solving unsolved problems with new knowledge.
The MEDTEC Grand Prix is truly a knowledge manufacturing site. There are many venture companies who want to change the world. What is important is the question that you have found by seriously facing the world, and your passion to solve the problems and change the world at any cost. I hope that the finalists who will be presenting in the competition will put their questions and passions to the test.
The judges are your friends, too. We hope that you will not be negative about the presentation, but will instead offer positive comments, such as, "This kind of technology could be combined with this. Please trust your individual sensitivities and intuition as you approach the judging.
Then allow me to introduce you to the communicators of Libanes. They are the leaders who connect technology and society. They are eager to serve in this role. I hope that everyone in the audience will join me in encouraging them to play an active role.
Now, knowledge manufacturing begins here. Let's do our best.
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