Transfer of All Axcelead Shares to Whiz Partners DDG Fund Completed

2019.04.01

April 1, 2019 – Whiz Partners Inc. (hereinafter, “Whiz”), headquartered in Minato Ward, Tokyo, announced that it has completed an investment-in-kind to the “Drug Discovery Gateway Investment Limited Partnership” (hereinafter, “DDG Fund”) of issued Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners Inc. (hereinafter, “Axcelead”) shares held by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter, “Takeda”), headquartered in Chuo Ward, Osaka.

As announced by Takeda on August 3, 2018, the DDG Fund is an investment fund that was created in October 2018 to promote a drug discovery ecosystem in Japan based on an agreement between Whiz and Takeda. Since the creation of the DDG Fund, there has been continual interest in participation and investment from many financial institutions, biopharmaceutical industries, and investors. The fund is scheduled to complete an initial round of capitalization in the first half of 2019. In the future, the fund will invest in venture firms and academia with promising R&D both in Japan and overseas; furthermore, further support will be given to portfolio companies in order to encourage successful commercialization.

In addition to completing the investment-in-kind of all Takeda-issued shares to the DDG Fund, Axcelead will provide broad drug discovery services to pharmaceutical companies and venture firms as a core investor in the DDG Fund.

<About Whiz Partners, Inc.>

Whiz Partners, Inc. (Tokyo, Japan) is an alternative asset management firm with Growth Equity and Global Macro Hedgefund offerings. Whiz has a strong track record in HealthCare investments, now on its fifth fund. Through its former brand, CSK Venture Capital, Whiz financed the Japanese Biotech industry in its infancy. As Whiz Partners, it continues to provide growth capital primarily to micro-cap public entities. Whiz is headquartered in Tokyo with an office in Hong Kong.
For more information, please visit http://www.whizp.com.

<About Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners Inc.>

Axcelead is the first comprehensive integrated drug discovery solutions provider in the pharmaceutical industry in Japan, having succeeded some portion of the drug discovery research department of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. and started its business in July 1, 2017. Axcelead has all the functions related to non-clinical drug discovery research and are also able to draw on the scientific powerhouse of our personnel with expertise, deep knowledge and experience in a range of therapeutic areas through their work at Takeda. Axcelead will offer a one stop-shop research services with a comprehensive set of best-in-class capabilities to meet a range of customer needs to bridge basic and applied clinical research, from exploratory research to optimizing compounds.

Contact: Whiz Partners, Inc.

Administration Department
Info@whizp.com
+81 (0) 3-6430-6778

Contact: Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners, Inc.

Business Planning & Operations
info@axcelead.com