Innovation Kyoto 2016 Investment Limited Partnership ("KYOTO-icap No.1 Fund"), with Kyoto University Innovation Capital Corporation ("Kyoto iCAP") (Head Office: Sakyo-ku, Kyoto; President: Koji Murota) as unlimited liability partner, today announced that it has made an investment in Oligogen Corporation ("Oligogen"), a venture company utilizing Kyoto University's research results. (hereinafter referred to as "Oligogen") (Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Tsuneo Kido), a venture company that utilizes research results from Kyoto University.

○Oligogen Investment Execution
OligoGenie is a venture company whose main business is the research and development of novel therapies for nervous system diseases. The company's president, Dr. Kido, is a neurologist from the Kyoto University School of Medicine. As a result of his research activities in the United States and other countries, he discovered new neural stem cells and named them "OligoGenie.

OligoGenie is characterized by its extremely high differentiation potential into oligodendrocytes, which are essential for the formation of the myelin sheath. OligoGenie's unique characteristics will be utilized by OligoGenie to target intractable diseases caused by abnormalities or damage to neural tissues, and OligoGenie will work towards the commercialization of therapeutic drugs.

Oligogen first aims to develop a treatment for Peritus Merzbach disease (PMD), a type of congenital cerebral white matter dysplasia, a genetic abnormality that prevents the normal formation of the myelin sheath, resulting in severe psychomotor developmental delay and a life-long bedridden condition for most patients. Most patients are bedridden for the rest of their lives. The number of patients with PMD in Japan is extremely small, approximately 230, and there is currently no effective treatment for the disease.

OligoGenie plans to start domestic clinical trials in 2020 for cellular medicine using OligoGenie as the active ingredient for the indication of PMD. Furthermore, OligoGenie will expand its business into the development of therapeutic drugs for intractable diseases of the nervous system such as spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Oligogen has been collaborating with Professor Wataru Fujibuchi (Division of Mechanisms of Proliferation and Differentiation) at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University, and has obtained research results, including the establishment of an evaluation technique for neural stem cells. Professor Fujibuchi also serves as a scientific advisor to Oligogen. OligoGen and CiRA will also conduct joint research and development aimed at, among other things, producing OligoGenie from iPS cells in the future.

Kyoto iCAP highly evaluated Oligogen's management philosophy of delivering novel therapeutic drugs to patients suffering from intractable diseases and its research and development capabilities in discovering novel neural stem cells, and responded to a third-party allocation of 110.05 million yen in total and invested 1995 million yen. The third-party allotment was also participated by Sosei Corporate Venture Capital Corporation, Nissay Capital Corporation, and SMBC Venture Capital Co.

Overview of Oligogen Corporation

Establishment	August 2015
Business	Development of novel therapeutic drugs for neurological diseases
Head Office Location	Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo
President & CEO	Tsuneo Kido