IPGaia and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Announce Comprehensive Collaborative Research and Development Agreement

IPGaia Inc. (“IPG”) and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (“Icahn Mount Sinai”) have entered into a Comprehensive Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (“this agreement”) dated August 7th, 2024. This agreement establishes a formal framework for the incorporation of promising drug target leads from Icahn Mount Sinai into IPG’s drug discovery platform.  

This agreement enables Icahn Mount Sinai to propose drug targets to IPG for identification and development of lead compounds or modalities with the goal of licensing clinical development candidates to pharmaceutical companies. IPG is soliciting drug discovery seeds from a wide range of research institutions, including global academia and pharmaceutical companies, and is steadily expanding domestically and internationally to the 10th academia institution, Icahn Mount Sinai (Japan: 5 institutions, US: 4 institutions, Singapore: 1 institution). IPG aims for the efficient creation of innovative medicines and hopes to contribute to solving global social issues by reducing healthcare costs and expanding access to medicine.  

Upon the conclusion of this agreement, Erik Lium, PhD, the Chief Commercial Innovation Officer at the Mount Sinai Health System and President of Mount Sinai Innovation Partners, said, “We look forward to working with IPGaia, enhancing efforts in drug discovery and addressing healthcare challenges. Their innovative platform will contribute to our shared goals in advancing early stage biomedical research.”   

“It is a great honor and privilege for us to enter into this agreement with Icahn Mount Sinai, one of the most prestigious medical schools in US,” said Yasu Yamaguchi, Ph.D., President and CEO of IPG. “This partnership grants IPG access to cutting-edge drug discovery seeds, enabling us to develop highly innovative medicines with greater efficiency. In this sense, IPG is committed to addressing global challenges such as rising healthcare costs and extending healthy life expectancy.”  

About IPG

IPG was established on October 26, 2021, as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Healthcare New Platform Fund where Whiz Partners Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Satoru Iino) has been the general partner. IPG leverages the valuable drug discovery research data and expertise of its comprehensive partnership agreement, Axcelead and Axcelead DDP, to select promising research seeds and projects. By collaborating among the parties to build a next stage drug discovery platform, it would be possible to generate high quality innovative pharmaceuticals in a shorter period of time and lower cost. As for the pharmaceutical industry, the trend of the horizontal division of labor business model would be more accelerating. IPG plays a role as a platformer for creating pre-clinical stage innovative new medicines.