Nanome and Fujitsu bring immersive drug design software to Japanese market
San Diego–based virtual reality (VR) startup Nanome, Inc. has entered into an agreement with Fujitsu to bring their signature product — an immersive scientific design and collaboration platform — to the Japanese market. The software is already used by more than 15 of the top US-based biopharmaceutical companies.
Written by Deborah Bright
Nanome became the first VR software company to launch an immersive real-time collaboration platform for scientific discovery in 2015. The software environment accelerates scientific decision making by allowing users to visualize, modify, and simulate biological and chemical compounds, facilitating effective communication of data and integrating with existing computational chemistry workflows.
“Our software enables the analysis of complicated structures in 3D space,” said Nanome COO Keita Funakawa. “It can help gain insights into data that were not accessible using 2D tools.”
Beginning this month, Fujitsu, a multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, will sell Nanome software licenses to Japanese pharmaceutical companies. This places Nanome in one of the largest markets in the world. The startup hopes to expand the partnership to address the needs of chemical engineering and materials science companies.
“The number of corporations in Japan using VR software is projected to more than double by 2025,” said Akihiko Harada of Fujitsu. “We were keen to partner with Nanome to bring this innovative platform to Japan. This partnership is right in line with our efforts to drive new value from cutting-edge digital technologies that not only transform the way we work and live, but contribute to solving global social challenges.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began late last year, the startup’s software has been used by researchers globally to evaluate the ability of antibody and small molecule drug candidates to bind the viral proteins. In June, Nanome became the first US-based company to join European Union government supercomputing efforts against SARS-CoV-2 by providing virtual reality headsets and Nanome software access to selected members of the Exscalate4Cov consortium.
“Our partnership with Fujitsu will enable us to provide real-time scientific collaboration tools to companies at the forefront of the fight against SARS-CoV-2,” said Steve McCloskey, CEO of Nanome. “By making it easy and intuitive for researchers to evaluate candidate molecules, we hope to help decrease the time it takes to get an effective drug to market and enable scientists to stay one step ahead.”
Personal Note by Keita Funakawa:
I’m incredibly proud to announce our latest milestone: our partnership with Japanese IT Giant Fujitsu. This has been one of the deals that I’ve been personally leading over the past two years. Given my strong personal ties with Japan, I’m thrilled that I can be ‘a bridge’ to one of the largest biopharma/materials markets for our team. Huge and special shout-out to my father, Atsushi Funakawa for advising our team and enabling this deal that could have never happened without him. From COVID19, cancer, to next generation materials research, we’re excited to enable more scientists and engineers around the world to collaborate and accelerate their work!
(8月24日、日本経済新聞で取り上げられていたのですが、英語の記事が発表されるまで待っていました。日本経済新聞のリンクはこちらです: https://r.nikkei.com/article/DGXMZO62809780Z10C20A8FFT000...)
この二年間、私はナノーム社の経営陣の一人として、日本でのビジネス展開を推進して参りました。本契約締結はその中核となるものです。世界で有数のバイオ製薬、素材メーカを有する日本市場との橋渡し役を担えることは、何よりも日本で育った私としては望外の喜びでもあります。ナノーム社のジャパン戦略アドバイザーで、私の父、船川淳志氏にこれまでの支援に感謝の意を表します。一人でも多くの日本の科学者とエンジニアの皆さんの研究活動の促進・支援に邁進します。
