Tensegrity Pharma Raises Additional 150 Million YEN in Seed Round

- Total amount of funds raised is 650 million yen -

(Head Office: Tokyo; Representative Director: Takato Nakahara; "Tensegrity Pharma"), a biostartup aiming to deliver innovative drug candidates to the world, has completed a 150 million yen seed round of financing through a third-party allocation of new shares from Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Limited (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and Representative Director: Takuro Kojima). (headquartered in Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Takuro Kojima, President and Representative Director). This brings the total amount of funds raised to 650 million yen, including 500 million yen from Newton Biocapital Co. The company will use the funds raised through this seed round to accelerate the development of TSP-101, a drug for the treatment of cachexia.
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What is Cachexia?
Cachexia is a syndrome characterized by weight loss associated with chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiac disease, and infectious diseases, the pathogenesis of which is not yet fully understood. There is no uniform treatment and no approved therapeutic agents. Recent studies have demonstrated the involvement of multiple molecular mechanisms in the development of cachexia, including skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, digestive organs, central nervous system, and immune system. Cancer-related cachexia, in particular, is a multifactorial disorder that is difficult to reverse with normal nutritional support and is primarily characterized by sustained skeletal muscle loss. Factors released by the tumor, the tumor-induced systemic inflammatory response, and metabolic changes are deeply involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. This complication, which occurs in about 80% of cancer patients, is known to cause weight loss and anorexia, decrease the effectiveness of chemotherapy, and increase side effects and treatment interruptions.

Future Business Outlook
Tensegrity Pharma focuses on eliminating specific bottlenecks in drug discovery projects and employs a unique approach to quickly find solutions in small, self-organized teams. This approach is based on the concept of "tensegrity" , which creates stable structures with a small number of components. We identify potential drug candidates and conduct exploratory clinical trials globally to revitalize the drug discovery ecosystem and create new business opportunities.
Tensegrity Pharma is currently developing TSP-101, which is expected to have anti-cachexia effects by blocking the signal of specific factors that are overexpressed in various cancers with high incidence of cachexia and suppressing cancer-derived systemic inflammatory responses, as well as anti-cancer effects by improving cancer microenvironment. TSP-101 is a drug discovery program that succeeded the preclinical development product that was discontinued by Astellas Pharma Inc. for strategic reasons, and we are aiming to rapidly introduce TSP-101 into clinical phase 1/2 and rapidly obtain proof of concept (POC) in the clinic.

Tensegrity Pharma, Inc.
Tensegrity Pharma is a small, elite start-up company whose philosophy is to eliminate the bottleneck of new drug seeds around the world. We evaluate and retrieve strategically discontinued therapeutic drug candidates from a unique drug discovery perspective, obtain clinical POC through the execution of global exploratory clinical development trials, and seek out-licensing and M&A opportunities for pharmas of various sizes where value can be maximized. Our team consists of a small number of elite members with extensive drug discovery experience in both the pharmaceutical industry and startups, and we promote clinical development based on promising candidate substances created by pharma. In this way, we will discover and provide the seeds of highly innovative new drugs needed by society and contribute to the further revitalization of the drug discovery ecosystem in Japan. We are also committed to fostering global drug discovery human resources originating from Japan.
 
Representative: Takahito Nakahara, Representative Director
Location: 1-9-10 Nihonbashi Horidome-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-0022, Japan
 Nihonbashi Life Science Building 7, 6F
Establishment : March 7, 2023
URL: https://jp.tensegritypharma.com