Profile

About profiles of the office and people

Our service is offered by a privately owned business.

Here is a brief explanation of the office and people.

About office

Owner: Atsumi TOBITANI

Location: Toyohira-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

Transport: Tsukisamu-Chuo Station, Toho Line [map]

Owner / Consultant

Atsumi TOBITANI   PhD, MBA

Atsumi started his professional career as a scientist at Technical Research Institute of Snow Brand Milk Products, Co. Ltd., a major food manufacturer in Japan. He was in charge of basic research on food physics and development of novel food materials. His mission at the company also included the planning of R&D strategy and project management. At Snow Brand, he was given two-year secondment at the King's College London and his PhD project in polymer science was supervised by Professor Simon B. Ross-Murphy.

After early career development as a scientist, Atsumi's interest moved to business area and so he decided to study business administration at Manchester Business School. On completion of MBA course, he joined a Japanese biotech start-up company developing artificial oxygen carrier, Oxygenix, Co. Ltd, and was responsible for business development, intellectual property management, and corporate planning.
He then moved to a financial sector related to start-up business, which is a venture capital in Sapporo, Hokkaido Venture Capital Inc, and worked as an investment manager for several years.

In July 2010, he set up a consulting business specialized in strategic management of R&D and business creation.

PhD in life science from King's College, University of London, UK.
MBA from Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK.
BEng and MEng in chemical engineering from Hokkaido University, Japan.

Partner / Consultant

Katsuhiko ITOH   PhD, Certified Pharmacist

Katsuhiko started his professional career at Yoshitomi Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. (currently Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation) as a senior researcher, and was engaged for 12 years in R&D of several drug piplelines including anti-osteoporosis, anti-rheumatic, and anti-thrombotic agents.

He then changed his career by serving as a business analyst of healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors at Deutsche Securities and Societe Generale Securities for two years, followed by the successful track record at Nikko Antfactory K. K. as a venture capitalist in charge of JPY 1.8 billion investment into biotech start-ups in two years' period. Among those achieving IPO are LTT Bio-Pharma, Immuno-Biological Laboratories, NanoCarrier, CanBas, and CellSeed.

Currently while serving as an advisor at Immuno-Biological Laboratories Co., Ltd., he offers consulting services to several biotech and healthcare companies and start-ups.
Katsuhiko is also a regular contributor of Nikkei BP, a well-known business and science publisher, and KOKUSAI SHOGYO publishing corp, a pharmaceutical industry publisher. His recent work includes Research on Pipeline in Nikkei Almanac for Biotech Industry (Nikkei Bio Nenkan) and Expectations for the growth of venture firms in the International Pharmaceutical Product Information (Kokusai Iyakuhin Joho).

PhD in pharmacology from Tokyo University of Science, Japan.
MSc in pharmacology from Tokyo University of Science, Japan.
BSc in pharmacy from Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, Japan.