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GF Mille Co. Ltd. is developing nucleic acid medicines suitable for the Precision Medicine era, by using the technological knows-hows and patents of nucleic acid and sugar chain chemistry born at Gifu University. In Latin, Mille means a thousand. Gifu is also the birthplace of "Sen-Nari Byoutan," the Gourd producing many valuables, which has made Hideyoshi Toyotomi famous during the attack of the lord Nobunaga Oda against Inabayama Castle which is close from GF Mille headquarter. In the precision medicine era, our company name was given in the hope that many useful drugs can be developed by ourselves. GF means not only Gifu, the birthplace of the company, but also our hope to become a company that can contribute as much as possible to the prosperously great future.
We are developing novel drug discovery under the strong coalition with a Canadian pharmaceutical venture, Solstar Pharma. We carry out basic research and preclinical study in Japan, and help promote the clinical studies by Solstar. The company logo, which combines the Japanese and Canadian flags shows a tight alliance of GFM and Solstar.
| Name of the company | GF Mille |
|---|---|
| Founding | November 18th, 2019 |
| Company’s capital | ￥3,500,000 |
| Corporate organization | |
| President and CEO | Dr. Tokuhiro Chano, M.D. |
| Scientific Director | Dr. Maximiliano Arella,Ph.D. |
| Senior advisor | Dr. Yoshihito Ueno,Ph.D. |
| Senior advisor | Dr. Hiromune Ando,Ph.D. |
| Honorary advisor | Dr. Yasuhiro Furuichi, Ph.D. |
| Headquaters | 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu city, Japan 501-1193 |
| Phone | +81-80-9760-5354 |
NEWS
- GFM has been registered as the 4th Gifu university-originated company since March 17th 2020.
- The Asahi newspaper put on an interview article with Dr. Furuichi in the science section (on the Feb.8th, 2021 issue) in which Dr. Furuichi’s early discovery of mRNA cap structure m7GpppNm- in 1975 contributed significantly the recent and fast development of Covid-19 mRNA vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna.
CORPORATE HISTORY
| 2016-2019 | Early collaborationsThe Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) supported the collaboration of Drs. Yoshihito Ueno, Ando, and Yasuhiro Furuichi in the research project “Establishment of technology to form a tissue-specific delivery of RNA conjugates.” |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Preliminary meetings Dr. Max Arella of Solstar Pharma worked for two years in the laboratory of Dr. Yasuhiro Furuichi at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology (Nutley, N.J. USA) in the 1980s. In 2019, Dr. Arella visited Dr. Yoshihito Ueno and other team members and proposed a biotechnology company that can utilize the intellectual property of Gifu University. GFM was founded to continue the discovery of RNA therapeutics. Dr. Tokuhiro Chano conducted a mouse experiment for testing siRQ238, which showed promise. Drs. Chano and Furuichi visited Solstar Pharma in Quebec, Canada, to discuss Dr. Chano’s findings and others with Mr. Tommy Baltzis, CEO of WhiteHaven securities, and Dr. Dennis Baltzis, CEO of Solstar Pharma. |
| 2020 February | Commitment to relationship and development plans Dr. Dennis Baltzis and Dr. Max Arella meet with GFM members in Tokyo. At the meeting, they committed to the relationship between GFM and Solstar Pharma and discussed plans for developing RNA therapeutics. |
| 2021 | Patent application GFM, Solstar Pharma, and Gifu University filed the joint patent application for the new anti-coronavirus therapeutic siRNA-30X. |