On October 23, 2020, under the theme of start-up, we invited 2 lecturers and held the 4^th Academia Clinical Development Seminar.

The lecturer of the 1^st part is Specially Appointed Associate Prof. Atsushi Fujimoto from Office for Industry-University Co-Creation and University Advancement, Co-Creation Bureau, Osaka University. He gave us a lecture about supports by Co-Creation Bureau, Osaka University to start a venture business and its process.

For the 2^nd part, Mr. Hayami Shimizu, CEO of OSAKA University Venture Capital Co., Ltd. gave us a lecture titled “What VC stands for? What goals do VC’s have? Including case study of Life Science Venture”

Prof. Fujimoto succeeded exits for 3 companies including the experience of a listing as a fund manager/director. On top of that, he was engaging in investment support business at OSAKA University Venture Capital Co., Ltd. before taking the current post. In the lecture, he explained the following 3 points based on his experiences.

１．What is a venture business?
２．What does Co-Creation Bureau, Osaka University do?
３．What to do to start a venture business?

Prof. Fujimoto introduced Co-Creation Bureau’s roles to solve issues in our society by supporting a start of a venture business, which leads to “Research & Development Ecosystem” that Osaka University is aiming for. In addition, he explained what to do to start a business in details. With his own experiences, Prof. Fujimoto talked us through key points to make a venture business succeed and points to keep in mind when setting up a university venture. In addition, he explained concrete procedures to start a venture business with a timeline.

Since Mr. Shimizu, the lecturer of the 2^nd part, had been in bio life science business specializing in Information Technology for a long time, he has abounding experiences in investments for Biotech Venture funds and start-ups. On top of that, as Mr. Shimizu has experiences in business management as a president for 3 business companies, he explained the following 3 points from both point of view as VC and a start-up.

１．What is Venture Capital?
２．U.S. Biotech Market
３．Listing environment in Japan

Pointing out 3 key words in the lecture; “shared value”, “social impact”, and “return”, Mr. Shimizu explained in details about differences in scale of investment and investing environment between the U.S. and Japan and also key points to succeed in fund raising with actual cases.

We held the seminar in two parts as last time, and its one and half hours might be too short to talk about venture business. However, thanks to both lecturers’ abundant experience in venture business, the seminar was filled with practical contents. We are more than happy if this seminar would be a help for researchers to step forward to transfer their research outcomes into global market.

The next seminar is scheduled on November 20, 2020. We’ll invite Ms. Keiko Fukuta from Tuberculosis and Infectious Disease Control Division, Health Service Bureau, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. She is going to give us a lecture titled “Development of medical devices focusing on further perspectives in Japan and abroad.” We’re looking forward your participation.