EU-Japan Centre Biotech Business mission to Japan: two success stories

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Below abstracts are part of the interviews held with the companies’ executives. Please visit the EU-Japan Centre website to learn more about the companies’ challenges in the Japanese market and their advice to European SMEs targeting Japan. 

Applications for the Centre’s 2026 biotech mission to Japan are open until the 19 June!! 

PL BioScience 

PL BioScience is a German biotech SME founded in 2015 in Aachen, building on research conducted at RWTH Aachen University. The company specialises in Human Platelet Lysate (HPL), a cell culture supplement derived from human platelets that provides cells with the growth factors they need to proliferate efficiently in laboratory conditions.  [...]

Why Japan?
Japan's leadership in stem cell science made it a natural target market. Following the Nobel Prize-winning discovery by Professor Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in 2012, Japan became one of the most advanced countries in the world in stem cell research and regenerative medicine. [...]
For nearly two years, the company explored entry options without finding a clear path forward. The turning point came through a German accelerator programme, which facilitated introductions to multiple Japanese companies and organisations. [...]

The EU-Japan Centre's Support
The EU-Japan Centre's Biotech Business Mission 2025 — including participation in the Osaka Partnering Conference — helped the company obtain PMDA certification, which as a foreign company is a complex process. [...]
The company highlights several aspects of the mission that were particularly valuable:
•    A well-organised partnering programme — The structured approach to pre-arranged meetings, with detailed company profiles made available in advance, allowed PL BioScience to identify and meet the right counterparts efficiently.
•    Access to end-users and the wider ecosystem — Site visits to science parks and biotech hubs provided an on-the-ground understanding of Japan's life sciences landscape, the structure of its value chain, and where the company's products could best fit.
•    Continuous improvement — Having participated in the mission on multiple occasions, the company noted a consistent year-on-year improvement in the programme's organisation and quality.
 
Text based on an interview with Jungsoo Park, Vice President of Marketing and Sales. 
Continues on: 
https://www.eu-japan.eu/eubusinessinjapan/library/publication/success-story-pl-bioscience

IKTOS

Introduction
Founded in 2016, Iktos is a French global leader in AI and robotics for drug discovery. Its generative AI technology designs molecules in silico, optimized to meet all key success criteria of a discovery project. With over 60 successful projects to date, Iktos is also advancing its own pipeline of drug candidates in oncology, obesity and metabolism, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. [...]

Why Japan?
Iktos identified Japan as a strategic market from early on. The first connection came in 2020, when Teijin Pharmaceuticals reached out looking for a partner with advanced capabilities in AI for drug discovery. After initial discussions for a potential strategic collaboration, a formal agreement was launched in early 2022 and ran until mid-2024 — a significant milestone. Around the same time, Iktos started a business relationship with Ono Pharmaceutical. These two partnerships provided a strong foundation and demonstrated that the Japanese market was the right fit. [...] As Japan became an undisputed priority market, a local subsidiary was established: Iktos KK, based in the Greater Tokyo area in Chiba, to better serve its growing base of customers and partners, with Hideyoshi Fuji as Representative Director.
 
EU-Japan Centre’s Support
Iktos benefited from the EU-Japan Centre's support through participation in the 2024 Biotech Business Mission to BioJapan Yokohama, the leading trade fair in Japan. 
Mr. Gaston-Mathe, CEO and co-founder, and Mr. Fuji, Representative Director, took part in the mission and were hosted at the Centre's pavilion, gaining visibility with key Japanese industry players and access to targeted business-to-business meetings.
 
Text based on an interview with Yann Gaston-Mathe, CEO and co-founder, and Hideyoshi Fuji, Representative Director. 
Continues on: 
https://www.eu-japan.eu/eubusinessinjapan/library/publication/success-story-iktos