Genopole, France’s leading and world-renowned biocluster, was in Japan on 4–11 October. The main event on its agenda was BioJapan, Asia’s largest partnering event for biotechnologies drawing over 17,000 visitors and close to 1,000 exhibitors from 34 countries. The event was a great opportunity for Genopole to extend its international network of investors and corporations in Eastern Asia and give that network a chance to meet the biocluster’s companies. Two came along for the trip: Abolis Biotechnologies and Ispiron, in the company of Genopole Growth and Prospection Hub Director Laurence Lacroix-Orio, Program Manager Paul Caroën and International Affairs Coordinator Alexis Biton.
Estimated at $32 billion in 2019 by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), the Japanese bioindustry market presents significant opportunities for Genopole and its companies. Most notably because of its aging population, Japan actively supports and is particularly active in medical research. It moreover is opening itself to partnerships with foreign start-ups to strengthen the commercial deployment of innovative breakthroughs for regenerative medicine, gene editing and artificial intelligence, all three of those sectors counting among the main focuses of the BioJapan 2024 partnering event.
The agenda of Genopole’s mission to Japan, conceived in partnership with the French CCI in Japan and Hello Tomorrow, included such destinations as:
- the BioJapan partnering event, held 9–11 October in Yokohama, south of Tokyo au sud de Tokyo, to present the Genopole ecosystem, its accompaniment programs for innovative start-ups and its real-estate development projects for the bioindustry.
- the Global Life Science Session 2024 organized by Link-J and held 8 October in Tokyo, to develop Genopole’s network of Japanese & other clusters, government entities and start-ups.
- the EU-Japan Biotech & Pharma Partnering Conference 2024, held 7 October in Osaka.
- the iPark Global Showcase followed by a visit to IPark Science on 8 October in Shonan, southwest of Tokyo.
- and a visit to the KOBE Biomedical Innovation Cluster.
Major, international events like BioJapan optimize tight-scheduled opportunities to meet representatives from the world’s largest bioclusters (San Diego, Australia, Taiwan, etc.).
“Participating in BioJapan strengthens the position of Genopole and the Île-de-France Region in relation to those of other European clusters,” explains Laurence Lacroix-Orio, director of the Genopole Growth & Prospection Hub. “That participation demonstrates, to the Asian biotech ecosystem, our ability to operate on the international health and bioeconomy scenes.”
Every encounter, every visit, parallels our know-how to other models of economic and industrial accompaniment for businesses. The example of IPark Science in Shonan was particularly inspiring. Built on the former site of the pharmaceutical company Takeda and conceived on the same model as Genopole with laboratories, large businesses and innovative start-ups brought together, IPark Science occupies immense surfaces, ensures a flux of circulation and comprises break spaces tailored to encourage exchanges between researchers and entrepreneurs.
Potentialities for partnerships were also created during the visit to the Kobe Biomedical Innovation Cluster, which brings together 350 entities including research institutes, hospitals, universities, pharmaceuticals, medical device makers and other companies.
“It’s a proud cluster,underlines International Affairs Coordinator Alexis Biton. “It and Genopole align on medical research subjects, notably in the regenerative medicine sector. We have the same philosophy, the same age… In September, we organized a webinar with them to teach our companies about the development opportunities available in Japan and we will be welcoming a delegation from the Kobe cluster in November for a visit to Genethon. “.
International visibility for Genopole companies
The biocluster’s companies increase their international visibility thanks to Genopole’s exploratory missions.
« “Japan is looking for partnerships and we have opened our portfolio of innovative start-ups for them », explains Laurence Lacroix-Orio. After we spoke at BioJapan and Global Life Science, several large pharmas expressed their interest in discovering novel technologies in such sectors as innovative therapies, ophthalmology, age-related disease, allergies and infectious diseases ».
Beyond research in medical innovations, the Genopole team also noted a clear interest among the Japanese for developments in sustainable foods, cellular agriculture and meat alternatives.
« “We are hoping to associate the Japan Bioindustry Association (JBA) with the board of our European cellular agriculture project APROVALS to exchange information on good practices and Japanese regulatory issues in the foodtech sector », announces Alexis Biton.
« Japan has fallen a bit behind in biotech and hopes to intensify its support for the bioindustry, especially for fermentation projects, adds Laurence Lacroix-Orio. At the institutional level, our discussions in Japan reinforced our ties with NEDO, a Japanese governmental structure providing major financing to advance the bioindustry. We are going to develop shared acceleration programs and, starting in early 2025, get together once a month for an information-exchange webinar, in which their international partners and our accompanied businesses will participate ».
Abolis Biotechnologies and Ispiron on their trip to Japan
Abolis Biotechnologies and Ispiron, speak about the benefits of participating in the exploratory mission to Japan.
Gwenaël Servant, business and strategy vice-president at Abolis Biotechnologies, a specialist in the design of microorganisms for new solutions in biomanufacturing: « Our participation in this Genopole mission allowed us to take our first steps toward Japan, a market open to partnerships but difficult to penetrate from Europe. Actually going there is necessary for building relationships of confidence; Genopole enables that and makes it easier. Japan knows it has fallen behind in biotech and is thus organizing itself to catch back up, notably by establishing international partnerships. I benefited from meetings with pharmas like Takeda, and from other, also-promising ones with businesses in the specialty chemicals sector. I also had the pleasure of sitting down to talk with a National Taiwan University professor, renowned in the field of synthetic biology. He will be visiting Abolis in the next few days. I’ll gladly join any new missions to markets we’re looking to participate in! »
Irina Gbalou, CEO of Ispiron, a start-up aiming to develop next generation bioreactors to stabilize biomanufacturing processes, increase yields and reduce costs for gene therapy production: « The biomanufacturing market is accelerating in Asia, with a growth rate superior to those of the United States and Europe. This trip to Japan confirmed the pertinence of our project for biotech companies and CDMOs (contract development and manufacturing organizations; subcontracting companies specialized in processes development and industrial-scale production of medicines, viral vectors, recombinant proteins, etc.). At the BioJapan event, I was able to present Ispiron to several investors and corporate representatives and more concrete discussions continued after my return to France. Beyond BioJapan, we also benefited from access to Genopole’s entire Growth Hub ecosystem, and through it, increased our international visibility. In ten days, I completed my business model, confirmed the validity of our project in Japan, measured global competition and gained confidence ».
