Technology made it vastly easier to enhance all global industries, especially medicine. Regenerative medicine has long promised to solve a series of related conditions.

And yet, the industry saw no bigger change in the past few years.

Giving regenerative medicine the chance for a fresh start, Keita Mori designed SanBio, a platform fully committed to treating the sick and disabled. Without a doubt, SanBio single-handedly revolutionized the face of regenerative medicine.

The platform is a new-coming branch of regenerative-cell medicine, aiding patients suffering from brain injuries, strokes, or cardiac arrests. It dives deep into the field of stem-cell research and based on it, generates an innovative treatment for every patient. Not just brain injuries, the company also pays special attention to treating eye-brain impairments and still incurable conditions, like Parkinson's disease.

Enriching the vast world of medicine is a bold task to handle. Read how Keita’s ambition drove his SanBio to become among the most trusted solutions in modern medicine.

Nature Makes the Best Medicine

Ever since he was a little boy, Keita Mori had an inclination towards other people.

His closest family regarded him as being the gentle and caring one of the family. Keita’s curiosity for the outside world is what gave rise to what would one day become SanBio. Keita loved the outdoors and found the countryside to be his safe haven.

Whenever his brothers or grandparents got sick, the caring side of Keita took over. Keita never wanted to see people suffer, and also felt like he could be the one to help them overcome their troubles.

At a young age, Keita used leaves and natural oils to care for rashes and insect bites. As simple as the procedures may have looked, they gave him a brilliant idea to play with. Namely, he wanted to try and use nature’s goodies as an alternative bio-medicine means. He imagined his products would not be similar to lab-made drugs, nor would they contain harmful chemicals and toxins.

The Professional Approach

Due to his love for helping others, as well as medicine, chemistry, and biology, Keita moved on to study biochemistry at the university in Japan. There, he met his soon-to-be business partner, Toru Kawanishi.

Toru Kawanishi was also a caring young boy that loved the outdoors. His grandmother taught him how to carefully pick and place various flowers and make teas using garden herbs. He learned which flowers produced the sweetest scent and which could potentially cure a stomach ache.

Toru didn’t forget nature’s healing powers he had learned. He took his acquired knowledge to the University of Tokyo, where he studied biochemistry. As he and Keita shared a passion for bio-medicine, they also wanted to prove that its future lies in the field of stem-cell research.

After receiving a Master’s degree in the field of biochemistry, Keita Mori moved to the land of dreams, the US. There, he focused on building a successful stem-cell research startup.

A Platform is Launched

Once in the US, Keita Mori put the idea to rest for a while and decided to wait for the perfect timing. Just before the rise of SanBio, Keita worked as head of new product development at Xuma, an informatics startup in San Francisco. This was a temporary position but what Keita learned from the experience were the hacks required to run a successful startup.

However, the idea of helping others lingered on Keita’s mind for a long period. He wanted to use the knowledge he gained to further practice stem-cell and research-based treatments. As he saw the US as a promising business market, Keita and Toru founded SanBio in February 2001.

SanBio focuses on alternative medical treatments and implementing regenerative medicine to heal patients with mobility impairments. As both Keita and Toru had an extensive background in biochemistry, both used natural remedies to treat patients suffering from chronic pain. The drugs they created aimed to help those suffering from strokes or other brain impairments to regain full functionality. Moreover, they also focused on re-establishing mobility among patients suffering from neurotic limb disorders.

With SanBio, Keita and Toru looked to commercialize stem cell-based therapies and ultimately offer a solution to regenerating damaged brain cells.

Keita did not end his dream of helping others right there. He really wanted to fill the shoes of a superhero doctor. So, when he and Toru arrived in California, both assembled a team of internationally recognized experts to work on developing a therapy that works against chronic strokes.

A Therapy Drug Like no Other

A year after its birth, SanBio acquired intellectual rights over the core technology provided by Yokohama TLO.

The selflessness Keita Mori showed helped him both build a successful business and still take care of communities in need of quality and safe treatments. 2009 was a revolutionary year for Keita and Toru, as it marked the arrival of the new and improved stroke therapy drug called SB623. The results of using the drug led to remarkable clinical results and an increased number of improvements among patients. The drug ought to help stroke patients regain their motor skills as well as treat any other related abnormalities.

Throughout their entire empire-building process, Toru and Keita never forgot their roots. So, in 2013, the duo introduced SanBio back to the Japanese medical market.

The use of SanBio’s first alternative-medicine product - SB623 - showed incredible results based on the patients’ as well as the doctors’ feedback.

Funding & Clinical Trials

SanBio earned priority review status from Japanese and US regulatory authorities, due to the overwhelming success of SB623. Nevertheless, the biggest milestone that hit Keita and Toru was the obtaining of a medical license. This license would help the duo to market their regenerative medicine products in Japan.

In 2017, SanBio received a $20 million grant from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, in support of Phase 2 of the SB623 clinical trial.

In April 2019, the drug was awarded the Sakigake Designation from the Ministry of Health as a regenerative medicine product. It was also recognized as an advanced therapy product by the European Medicines Agency.

SanBio had total funding of $48.3 million, achieved over 6 rounds, and 6 investors, 3 of which were lead. These include Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking, the CIRM, Nissay Capital, and Mizuho Bank. The company’s latest funding took place in January 2020, from a Post-IPO Equity round.

SanBio Today

Aside from the US and Japan, the SanBio team is looking forward to broadening their offering to other countries, and therefore, make SB623 globally available. Their mission is to pioneer a new meds category that can even rival the SB623.

Toru and Keita anticipated the approval of stem-cell regenerative medicine their entire lives. Because of their persistence, they became two of the first inventors of a stem-cell-based drug worldwide. The arrival of SB623 marked the beginning of another era in medicine and assured thousands of patients that proper treatment can be provided.

Their company has HQs in both California and Tokyo. There are more than 50 employees working at SanBio, serving thousands of patients across the globe. Aside from regenerative medicine, SanBio also plans on creating new meds aimed at treating most impairments patients suffer from.

Two decades of scientific and clinical advances later, SanBio is still going strong on the market. To this day and those to come, it will continue to represent an undisputable part of medicine that ensures patients worldwide are entitled to the kind of treatment that suits them best!