JMDC, Gene Techno Science, Astellas Venture Management and Nissay Capital have contributed to a $25.8m round for Keio University's heart failure treatment developer.

Heartseed, a Japan-based developer of treatments for heart failure (HF) based on research at Keio University, has secured ¥2.8bn ($25.8m) in series B funding from investors including medical data technology provider JMDC. Biopharmaceutical firm Gene Techno Science also took part, as did Astellas Venture Management, Nissay Capital, SBI Investment and SMBC Capital – respective subsidiaries of pharmaceutical firm Astellas, insurer Nippon Life and financial services firms SBI and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. Founded in 2015, Heartseed is developing cardiomyocytes – the cells that make up the heart’s cardiac conduction system – from stem cells, with the aim of transplanting them into cardiac tissue to combat HF. The funds will support the initiation of a phase 1/2 clinical trial for Heartseed’s lead product candidate, HS-001, in early 2020. The company’s work is based on cardiac regenerative medicine developed by its co-founder and CEO, Prof. Keiichi Fukuda, at Keio University’s Department of Cardiology. It identified Astellas Venture Management as a series A investor but did not provide any further information concerning its earlier backing. Fukuda said: “We are grateful for the support of our investors, which I believe is a reflection of their expectation and confidence that our lead pipeline HS-001 can be a curative therapy for severe HF, with the mechanism that transplanted ventricular-specific highly-purified cardiomyocytes engraft to patient’s heart and retain for a long-term.” – A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

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