-Aiming to solve the “Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)” problem
-The funding will be used to accelerate the company’s product development and build a stellar team
-Medical devices using AI analysis; Support diagnostic for infectious diseases and Automated bacterial testing
TOKYO, Japan, January 16, 2023 – CarbGeM Inc. (CEO: Masakazu Nakajima, Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan), a medical device company using AI analysis focused in the field of infectious diseases, today announced the completion of Series A financing by UB Ventures, Inc.
With this funding, CarbGeM will further promote product development, strengthen its Sales and Marketing structure, and also actively hire a stellar team.
In the 20th century, the first antibacterial drugs were developed, and as they spread rapidly, many bacteria acquired resistance to antibacterial drugs, and became a “drug-resistant bacteria”, making it difficult to obtain the effects of antibacterial drugs. Among them, bacteria that are thought to be widespread or have complete drug resistance are called “superbugs” and are attracting attention as a global issue. In fact, it is estimated that the number of global deaths due to drug-resistant bacteria will exceed 1 million in 2019, and by 2050, the number of annual deaths is estimated to reach 10 million.
It is difficult to treat the “drug-resistant bacteria” because existing antibacterial drugs become less effective, and a large amount of drug prescription and alternative drugs are required. It is also a cause of various medical problems, such as being fatal if infected during surgery or when immunity is weakened by anticancer drug treatment. This is the “Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) problem”.
To prevent the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria, it is important to “correctly diagnose the cause of the infectious disease and treat it with the appropriate administration of antibiotics.”
However, under the current domestic and overseas medical systems, it is difficult to invest in accurate diagnosis at every medical institution due to equipment cost, time, human resource, etc. Therefore, in order to build an environment that allows correct diagnosis in a wide range of medical settings, CarbGeM will continue to apply its proprietary AI analysis technology to the field of bacterial infections through the fusion of biology and digital technology, contributing to solving the problem of drug resistance.
CarbGeM are developing multiple products to solve the problem of drug resistance, such as “BiTTE”, an application for estimating the species of bacterial infections using AI image diagnosis and a support system for selecting appropriate antibacterial drugs, and “PoCGS”, a point-of-care automatic Gram staining machine aimed at improving the quality of Gram stained specimen used by BiTTE.
・Click here for a list of products currently under development ：https://carbgem.com/en/product-en/
Prior to the full-scale launch of its products, CarbGeM has raised funds to strengthen its technical and organizational capabilities.
1. Build a stellar team
Currently, with the aim of solving the problem of drug resistance, several industry-university collaboration and public-private partnership projects have been launched with influential academia, medical institutions, companies, etc. in Japan and overseas. CarbGeM is looking for talented and motivated candidates to tackle global challenges.
・Click here for open positions： https://carbgem.com/career/
2. Further acceleration of business development
In addition to accelerating the commercialization of current projects, CarbGeM is also focusing on creating the world’s first new products in the field of bacterial infections through industry-academia collaboration with leading domestic and overseas academia, medical institutions, companies, etc.
3. Promotion of joint projects with overseas research and medical institutions
In the “Asian DX Promotion Project in Japan and ASEAN, JETRO”, CarbGeM is working with local medical institutions in Vietnam to build a platform to support the identification of causative bacteria with the aim of promoting DX in the field of bacterial infections. CarbGeM has also started joint research using AI image recognition technology with Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in the state of New York in the United States.
CarbGeM plans to continue research and development in the field of infectious diseases, as well as joint industry-government-academia projects, not only in Japan but also worldwide.
As the risk of infectious diseases is increasing due to climate change, the reality is that there is a shortage of equipment and medical professionals to identify infectious bacteria. UB Ventures believes that CarbGeM’s AI analysis technology and automatic staining machines can contribute to solving the global issue of drug resistance. UB Ventures will support not only growth in Japan, but also increase market share globally through joint research with medical institutions in the United States and Vietnam.
CarbGeM aims to overcome the problem of “drug resistance” through the application of cutting-edge biology and digital technology, cross-industrial and cross-disciplinary collaboration including medicine and engineering, and industry-government-academia collaboration with leading research institutions in Japan and abroad. This time, with the investment of UB Ventures, CarbGeM will strengthen its organization and aim for further business growth to further promote business activities for its vision of “protecting human beings from the threat of bacterial infectious diseases and aiming to realize a safer world”.
Through the fusion of biology and digital technology, CarbGeM aims to apply its proprietary AI analysis technology to the field of bacterial infectious diseases. CarbGeM will accelerate industry-academia collaboration with domestic and overseas academia, companies, etc., and contribute to solving the global issue of drug resistance through open innovation.
Please visit the company website at https://carbgem.com/en/ for more information.
For further information, please contact:
CarbGeM Inc.
Fumika Hayasaka, Public Relations
Email press@carbgem.com
