License Agreement with iPS Academia Japan Inc.

Otsu/Shiga, Japan – November 4, 2014 -  Takara Bio Inc. announced that on November 4, 2014, it signed a licensing agreement with iPS Academia Japan (iPS AJ) concerning the use of patent regarding manufacturing of iPS cells invented by Prof. Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University, in business of differentiated cells.

 

Takara Bio has been active in business involving manufacturing of iPS cells under licensing agreement with iPS AJ regarding the manufacturing. New agreement enables Takara Bio to market products and services using various differentiated cells derived from iPS cells, which expands Takara Bio’s scope of business.

 

In June 2014, Takara Bio introduced technology for manufacturing cardiomyocytes from iHeart Japan, a venture company spun-out from Kyoto University. In August 2014, Takara Bio acquired Cellectis AB (former Cellartis) which has a technology to differentiate hepatic or pancreatic cells from stem cells. The introduction and acquisition expand Takara Bio’s technology base in stem cells and relating products. Furthermore, Takara Bio in collaboration with Prof. Jun Yamashita (Center for iPS cell Research and Application, Kyoto University) will embark development of mass production technology and quality test of iPS cell-derived cardiomyocytes which can be used for cardiac toxicity tests of medical products, under contracted R&D project “Development of manufacturing and assessment of cells: Establishment of method to evaluate cardiac toxicity for international standardization” adopted by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) on October 2014.

 

Takara Bio is committed to development of new products and services and expansion of sales in stem cell research fields.

 

This agreement has only slight effect on estimated consolidated and non-consolidated operating results of the fiscal year ended March 2015.