Nippon Shokubai Acquires the Ownership of Rena Therapeutics

OSAKA, JAPAN, November 22, 2019 – NIPPON SHOKUBAI CO., LTD. (Headquarter: Osaka, Chuo-ku, hereinafter “Nippon Shokubai”) announces that it has purchased issued and outstanding shares of Rena Therapeutics Inc. (Headquarter: Tokyo, Chiyoda-ku, hereinafter “Rena Therapeutics”) and acquired the ownership of Rena Therapeutics in November 21st, 2019.

1.About Rena Therapeutics

Rena Therapeutics is a venture company authorized by Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) in order to accelerate the Hetero Duplex Oligonucleotide (HDO) technology and drive commercialization of oligonucleotide drug. The HDO technology is invented by Professor Takanori Yokota of TMDU, Professor Satoshi Obika of Osaka University and others.

Oligonucleotide drug has been expected as new modality for treating intractable diseases, however, issues such as instability in blood and side effects have been revealed and widely recognized. HDO is composed of double stranded DNA/RNA with ligand molecules for proper drug delivery (Figure1), and it is strongly expected to overcome these issues.

Evaluated the high possibility of HDO technology, Rena Therapeutics executed non-exclusive license agreements with Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. which is global leading company in RNA-targeted drug discovery and development, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. which is the largest Pharmaceutical company in Japan. Nippon Shokubai invested in Rena Therapeutics to support its R&D and promote relationship in June 2017.

2.Purpose of transaction

Nippon Shokubai is establishing the Health and Medical Business, focusing on the fields of oligonucleotide drug, peptide drug, and Drug Delivery System (DDS). Nippon Shokubai plans to develop the DDS technology of oligonucleotide drug through this acquisition.
By means of not only active business support from Nippon Shokubai to Rena Therapeutics but also the cooperation with Rena Therapeutics, TMDU, and Osaka University, Nippon Shokubai will promote HDO technology to be practical. Nippon Shokubai tries to expand the contracted API manufacturing business acquiring new clients such as pharmaceutical companies as a result of manufacturing HDO structured API.

3.Overview of transaction

(1) Transfer of the shares
Nippon Shokubai purchased 301,250 shares.

	Before		After
Percentage	26.7% of all issued shares		91.3% of all issued shares
Class and Number of shares	Class B preferred	125,000 shares	Normal Class A preferred Class B preferred	80,000 shares 200,000 shares 146,250 shares

About Seller

Name	Class and Number of shares
INCJ, Ltd.	Class A preferred 200,000 shares / Class B preferred 21,250 shares
Individuals	Normal 80,000 shares

(2) Personnel transfers (Rena Therapeutics)

	Current	New
Shuichi Toriya	Outside director	President & CEO
Shoichi Iwamoto	Administration manager	Director
Shingo Horimoto	–	Outside director
Jun Sasaki	President & CEO	Director (retirement date is the end of November 2019)

4.Overview of Rena Therapeutics

Name	Rena Therapeutics Inc.
Head Office	Otemachi Financial City Grand Cube 3F, 1-9-2 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Activity	Manufacturing, Sales and R&D of oligonucleotide
Capital	100 million yen
Established	January 15th, 2015
Numbers of shares outstanding	466,666 shares
End of fiscal year	December 31st
Employees	10 (as of October 2019)
Website	https://www.renatherapeutics.com/?lang=en

5.Forecast

In order to provide the patients oligonucleotide drug even one day earlier, Nippon Shokubai will maximize the synergies of acquisition and keep on working to establish and develop drug development support business.

Nippon Shokubai Acquires the Ownership of Rena Therapeutics