A comprehensive portal site for Medical Innovation Support Office (MEDISO).Medical Innovation Support Office

Yumi Kawata ,MD, PhD

Hedgehog MedTech, Inc.

She is Founder and CEO of Hedgehog MedTech, Inc, a start-up Digital Therapeutics (DTx) company. Previously, she was a manager with SoftBank Corp, where she evaluated new Healthcare & Life Science investment opportunities, managed relationships with strategic partners. Prior to SoftBank, she was a Government Relations specialist with Medley, Inc, where she built and maintained the relationships with Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and Academia. She launched researches and POCs, contributing to the spread of telemedicine in Japan. She also served as a technical officer for MHLW. she was involved in the management of researches on Rare and Intractable diseases and Infectious Diseases.

Nobutaka Tani

Chair Person, Nonprofit Organization Japan Organoid Repository
Independent Consultant (New Business in Life Sciences)

He graduated with a master’s degree from the Department of Synthetic Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo. He led the research and development and the launching new project for medical devices, including blood purification system and brain and heart catheters, at Kaneka Corporation. After that, he was involved in RD of the whole life science, including biopharmaceuticals, as the head of the Life Science RD Center, while investing in medical venture companies such as DDS and establishing joint ventures. He then moved to JSR Corporation and established JSR Life Sciences. He led the launch of the life science project for M&A as the first president since JSR Life Sciences was established. As a part of open innovation, he established a CVC and invested in or acquired venture companies in Japan and overseas, while successively holding the positions of president of the invested companies.

Satoshi Fukushima

Globis Capital Partners & Co.

He graduated from the Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo. He was involved in investment activities in reformed fields of existing industries, including digital health, at Globis Capital Partners & Co. (GCP). He served as an outside director of several companies, including Medley, Inc., Kakehashi Inc., and Yoriso. Co. Ltd., and provided support to their management personnel mainly in strategy formulation, development of the organization, and finance. In addition to investigation activities, he provided support for fund structuring and open innovations provided by large companies in healthcare fields.

Before joining GCP, he was serving as an M&A advisor mainly in the technology, media, and telecommunication fields and worked on financing at the general headquarters of German Securities Finance Corporation.

Yasuo Sasaki

He graduated with a doctoral degree in science from the Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University. He was involved in the research and development of pharmaceutical products as an employee of Asahi Kasei Pharma Corporation. He was mainly in charge of preclinical studies and regulatory affairs. From 2013, he provided support for research and development by academia, drug discovery venture companies, and small and medium enterprises centering on the eastern part of Shizuoka Prefecture. Since 2018, he has been providing support services as a freelance advisor or coordinator in the life science field.

Hiroyuki Hasegawa

Director of Life Science, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co., Ltd.

He graduated with a master’s degree from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hokkaido University. In 1994, he joined Daiichi Seiyaku Company (current Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited) and was in charge of the areas of infectious diseases and cancers in the Department of Post-marketing Surveillance. In 2004, he joined UFJ Capital Co., Ltd. (current Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co., Ltd.), where he served as an analyst and capitalist. From 2013, he made an attempt to use open innovation for the Development of Emerging Technologies (OiDE) Fund for the purpose of nurturing outcomes from academia-launched research to become the fundamental technology for drug discovery in collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo Company Limited(liquidated in 2023).Since the first fund in 2017, we have been promoting investment activities using a total of 50 billion yen, including the "Mitsubishi UFJ Life Science Fund No. 4" (20 billion yen).Currently, he holds the position of outside director at Kamuipharma, GAIA Biomedicine, and Luxonus Co. Ltd., as well as serving as a fellow for collaboration between industry and academia at Kyoto University Medical Science and Business Liaison Organization.