KOBE BIOMEDICALINNOVATION CLUSTER 
Kobe Biomedical
Innovation Cluster
In the aftermath of 6.9 magnitude Great Hanshin - Awaji Earthquake
in 1995, Kobe city took on the unprecedented task of forging
a foundation for the future of the healthcare industry
Missions

Downtown Kobe

Revitalization of
Kobe economy

360

companies / organizations

Improvement ofhealthcare services

International
contribution

Kobe City

Business support(as of July 2024)

Collaboration with
8 highly specialized
medical institutions

Interaction
among companiesand organizations    20 million$ 836 billion

Population :GDP*1

*2Ranked18
thin the world



1,49 million¥ 6,9 trillion
557kmPopulation :GDP

Area

*3*42*5



*1 Vital statistics survey based on the Basic Resident Register of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (FY2023)*2 Kansai Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry(FY2023)*3 Kobe city (monthly estimated population) (March 1, 2024)*4 Hyogo prefecture Municipal Accounts (FY2021)*5 Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (January 1, 2022)  360Companies / Organizations

12,700(as of July 2024)

Employees(as of March 2023)

82 companies / Medical Devices

22.8%

74 companies / Pharmaceuticals

20.6%

23 companies / Regenerative Medicine

6.4%

11 organizations / Universities

3.1%

Healthcare

37 companies/

organizations

10.3%

Nursing care/ 13 companies/
organizations
Rehabilitation
3.6%

R&D
support55 companies/

organizations

15.3%

Information / 16 companies/
organizations
Software etc.
4.4%

Logistics

8 companies/

organizations

2.2%

Medicalinstitutes

13 organizations
3.6%

Others28 companies/

organizations

7.8%※All percentages do not always sum to 100% due toR&D of medical devices, pharmaceuticals,
regenerative medicine, healthcare and digital health industries

Economicimpact(2020)

Estimated revenues
to Kobe city

¥ 156,2 billion

Municipal
tax revenue¥ 6,9 billion

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Medical Innovation

Clinicalapplication

Basic research

Dr. Shuh Narumiya President
Researchpromotion

IBRI

Institute of Biomedical
Research andInnovation

Industrialization
Pharmaceuticals

Health promotion

Regenerative medicine

Researchsupport

Businesssupport

CCD

Center for Cluster
Development andCoordination

TRI

Translational ResearchCenter for
Medical Innovation

Nursing care / Rehabilitation

Medical devices

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Minami Koen Sta.

Medical Cluster
Iryo Center Sta.

Highly specialized
medical institutions

Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital

Bio Cluster

R＆D centers including RIKEN
RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR)

Keisan kagaku Center Sta.

Simulation Cluster
Supercomputer “FUGAKU”
and related institutionsⓒ RIKEN
Supercomputer “Fugaku”

Companies in KBIC
Kobe Airport Sta.

Innovation  RIKEN

Foundation for Biomedical
Research and Innovationat Kobe

Center for Biosystems
Dynamics Research (BDR)

Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation (IBRI)Translational Research Center for Medical Innovation (TRI)ⓒ Kobe Urban Promotion Service Co.,Ltd.

Unveiling what it means to be alive

Promoting cutting edge R&D of advanced medicine

・Precisely understanding the biological events unfolding inside the body frombefore birth to death
・Unveiling the mechanisms involved in the maintenance and disruption ofnormal body functions
・Contributing to the development of regenerative medicine

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・diseases like rheumatoid arthritis
・Applying the mechanisms of nerve cell death to the treatments of Alzheimer’s disease
and other conditions
・Development of treatments for strokes and dementia
・R&D to treat malignant diseases with poor prognosis, such as leukemia
・Promoting research on the pathogenesis of infectious diseases
to apply for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic methods

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for details

Kobe Eye Center

Companies

Kobe City Medical Center
General Hospital

Kobe Proton Center at
Hyogo Ion Beam
Medical Center

Coordinated byNishi Memorial Port Island
Rehabilitation HospitalKobe University HospitalInternational Clinical Cancer
Research CenterFBRI
Center for Cluster
Development andCoordination

ResearchInstitutions

Universities
Kobe Minimally Invasive
Cancer Center

Hyogo Prefectural
Kobe Children’s Hospital

Anshin Hospital   ­   #1in the World*As of May 2024

The World’s Best High-performance Computer
Low power consumption

High computational performance

User convenience

Ability to produce ground-breaking results

Big data and AI simulation calculationⓒ RIKEN

2021 ACM Gordon Bell Special prize “HPC-Based COVID-19 Research for novel droplet simulation”
2022 ACM Gordon Bell Award “ International joint research for Particle-In-Cell Simulations using FUGAKU”
Building an innovative drug
discovery platform

Personalized andpreventive medicine

Implemented on
・Healthy longevity, drug discovery ・Disaster prevention and mitigation
・Energy solutions
・Manufacturing
・Fundamental laws and Evolution of the universe

Research on COVID-19
ResearchSubject

・Elucidation of the structure of virus proteins
・Prediction of droplet infection and countermeasures

・Search for therapeutic candidates
・Analysis of pandemic phenomenon

Photo courtesy : RIKEN / Toyohashi Univ. of Technology
Supported by Kyoto Institute of Technology / Osaka UniversityNeo-futuristic manufacturing

Advanced forecasting ofclimate and global environment
Picture by RIKEN

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Supports Industrial Use of Supercomputer

FOCUS Supercomputer
RIKEN
Center for Computational Science (R-CCS)

Foundation for Computational Science (FOCUS)
Computational Science Center

Supercomputer “Fugaku”

FOCUS Supercomputer

University of Hyogo
Kobe Campus for Information Science

Integrated Research Center ofKobe University

Foundation for Computational Science

Public supercomputer for industrial use
System to promote the use of supercomputers
Integrated Research Center ofKobe University Annex Building

Step-up for the use of Fugaku and HPCI          
Minami Koen Sta.

Healthcare Innovations
in a wide spectrum of industries

Iryo Center Sta.

Pharmaceuticals

Medical Devices

Regenerative Medicine

Health promotion

Promoting translational research
Keisan kagaku Center Sta.

Promoting and supporting industrialization

Business Support
Dedicated coordinator
for each field

Startup support▶ Collaboration withKobe Airport Sta.

academic institutions▶ Network building▶ Matchmaking

Rental labs & offices     
Products Successfully Commercialized

Number ofcommercialized（累積）(total)products(as of July 2024)

Fully integrated
infusion set
Antileek®

Support bydedicatedcoordinators

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In 2020, the made-in-Japan
robotic assisted surgery systemborn in Kobe 2020
“hinotoriTM” is introduced

Measure - Non-invasive
Infusion controller
optical sensing measurement
SEEVOL®
AGEs SENSOR

Advisory platform for Commercialization
Materializing your idea
for the market

Supporting and consulting
Commercialization of products orservices to clinical fields

Bringing Innovation
to Medical field

Promoting collaboration between
medical needs and technical seeds
Professional advice for Evidence
Based Medicine

Consulting
regulatory affairs
Outstanding expertizedadvice based on
longtime reliable experience

Building a
global network
Collaboration with overseas
medical clusters to support global approach
Jointly participate in overseas
MedTech Exhibition with KBIC companies

Kobe Vision for the Healthcare of Tomorrow

Creating an ecosystem that willcontinuously generate innovation
medical device development in KBIC
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       
Total Coordination by FBRI Coordinators
Promote joint research through industry-government-academia collaboration

Manufacturing
Clinical trialBasic research(search for seeds)

Research
resources for
drug discovery

Collaboration
Support &Effective management with 8 hospitals
consultation onof translational
regulatory affairs
research
Preclinicalstudy

Landforproduction site

Application /Approval

Adequate leading-edge
techniques and partners

Promotion of Medical Innovation in Kobe    
firsts’dlro
W-basedllecSiP
anttranspel rysurg

The first-ever transplant of retinal cells
derived from iPS cells to a patient with“age-related maculardegeneration,” performedin Kobe in 2014

madeJapan- robotlSurgica em
syst

Robotic assisted surgery system“hinotoriTM surgical robotsystem”

Medicaroid Corporation
The company was established in Kobe in 2013 through a joint
investment between Kawasaki Heavy Industries, an industrial
robot manufacturer, and Sysmex, a medical device
manufacturer. It obtained Japan’s manufacturing and marketing
approval for a surgical support robot in 2020 and has obtainedsome regulatory approvals.

firstWorld’s eration Dental nerve regeneration by usingentooth cells derived from orthodonticallypulp reg rapy
unnecessary teeth
thesuch as wisdom teeth

Dr. Masayo Takahashi

Air Water Group

President of Vision Care Inc.

Aeras Bio Inc.

Dr.Takahashi worked as a project leader at RIKEN in 2014 andis currently closely connected with Kobe Eye Center throughher contributions to numerous clinical researches.
She has also established a startup to promote new lifesaving
treatments to be implemented to patients.

The company has put into practical use their technology thatderives pulp from unnecessary teeth, cultures and incubates thepulp stem cells, and transplants them into teeth with damagednerves. Pulp stem cell bank project in which dental pulp stem
cells are stored frozen for a long period is also in progress.

     Cisupptizen
orters

Kobe Health Lab

Utilizing citizen supporters system

Support byFBRI
coordinators

Collaborat

Healthy life compass Research complex

Create healthcare ecosystem in Kobe
through the Industry-Academia-Government
collaboration

Health promotion
citizen supporters

2,930Core Business

Healthfunction

citizens are registered(as of July 2024)

Position map for
total health

Joint Development ofIndustry-Academia-Citizen
Partnership Products and Services
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Commercializationof preventative
medical productsand services

DATA HUB
KOBE UNIVERSITY / UNIVERSITY OF HYOGO

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Support byFBRI
coordinators fromearly stage
Focused areas

Selected as a startup ecosystem hub city

Kansai Life ScienceAccelerator Program
Total Business-support For
Global Market Expansion
・Mentoring by a group of professionals
・・Networking with investors and strategic partners

startups
in KBIC(as of July 2024)

Human resources
・Training programs forbusiness development
・Seminar on IntellectualPropertyFacilities

Capital・・Collaboration with hospitals・Competitive Funds provided

to demonstrate products

by FBRI

・Subsidy

・Access to Venture Capitals

Check herefor details     Partnership agreement for promoting KBIC’s life science startup ecosystem

Bayer Yakuhin Ltd.

Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim Co., Ltd.

Incubation lab”CoLaborator Kobe”

following the UnitedStates and Germany.

Held networking event
in Boston.

The Kobe Pharma
Research Institute,the only researchlaboratory in Asia
opened
Held ”Boehringer
Ingelheim Innovation
Prize" in Kobe   ­  

We haveconnectionswithorganizations(as of July 2024)

Build international
network throughdedicatedcoordinators

English portal site

・Support KBIC business opportunities for both inboundand outbound・Promote international industry-academia collaboration
through joint research and development projects withoverseas companies and research institutes

KBIC Newsletter

GlobalPublicity
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Social media (LinkedIn)    
Cooperation among
Kobe City, FBRI, andEli Lilly Japan
Promotion of clinical research, etc
Conclusion of a cooperation agreement between the three parties(March 2016)

Joint Research withWHO Kobe Center


Rental labs and offices for R&D & business development
Creative Lab for
Innovation in Kobe (CLIK)
Shared lab / office forstartups (2F)

Kobe Center for
Medical Innovation (KCMI)
Wet labs suitable forcell processing (3 - 5F)

Kobe Medical Device
Development Center (MEDDEC)
Animal testing andoperation facility (1F)ⓒ Kobe Urban Promotion Service Co.,Ltd.

A variety of spaces to satisfy your R&D needs

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Kobe Biomedical
Innovation Cluster
Portal site

Incentive programs byKobe city
Support programs for setting up headquarter / office
Programs for growing startups

Inquiries forlab or office

Foundation for Biomedical
Research and Innovation at Kobe
Center for Cluster Development and Coordination
Business support

Incentives for prices on industrial land
Programs for companies in the Kobe city
Programs for special zones

Grants / subsidies

Translational Research Center for Medical Innovation
Research support / consultation