Innovation Kyoto 2021 Investment Limited Partnership ("KYOTO-ICAP No.2 Fund"), with Kyoto University Innovation Capital Corporation ("Kyoto iCAP") (Head Office: Sakyo-ku, Kyoto; President: Kimi Kusumi) as general partner, has made a new investment in Digestome Therapeutics, Inc. ("Digestome"; Headquarters: California, USA; President: Ken Horne), a venture company that utilizes the results of research at Kyoto University.

Outline of ○Investment
Digestome is a drug discovery venture established by Associate Professor Kosaku Ohinata (Department of Food and Health Science, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University) to develop newly discovered compounds as pharmaceuticals.

Professor Ohinata has previously shown that food-derived proteolytic peptides have various physiological activities such as mental stress relief, appetite regulation, memory enhancement, and blood pressure reduction. In particular, the peptide named DGX-001 has been shown to have strong antidepressant-like effects in animal experiments.

It is estimated that more than 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression, and the number continues to grow. Depression causes tremendous losses, including being the leading cause of suicide among young people, and improving treatment techniques is a societal challenge. Treatment of depression relies primarily on pharmacotherapy, but existing antidepressants have the disadvantages of limited variation in their mechanisms of action and relatively strong side effects. As a result, approximately 30 percent of patients do not achieve satisfactory efficacy with existing medications.

DGX-001 is an oral drug and is believed to exert its antidepressant-like effects through a completely different mechanism of action (vagus nerve stimulation) than existing antidepressants. It is also expected to significantly reduce side effects because it does not migrate into the bloodstream from the gastrointestinal tract.

Digestome has been granted exclusive commercialization rights by Kyoto University to develop several food-derived peptides, including DGX-001, as drugs. First, the company is working to obtain regulatory approval for DGX-001 for the treatment of psychiatric disorders in the United States, and has successfully raised a total of US$10 million in funding for this purpose.

Kyoto iCAP, in collaboration with Remiges Ventures, ANRI, and others, has decided to invest US$1,000,000 in this project, based on the following factors: the introduction of a breakthrough antidepressant drug will be a great blessing for people worldwide, and this is the first time a compound created by Kyoto University has been developed into a drug for the global market. The university has decided to invest US$1 million in the project in collaboration with Remiges Ventures, ANRI, and others.

Overview of Digestome Therapeutics, Inc.

Establishment	December 2017
Business	Research and development of new therapeutics in central nervous system region.
Head Office Location	California, U.S.A.
President & CEO	Ken Horne