April 14, 2023
To Whom it may concern
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Limited

Notice regarding Investment in Healthcare New Platform FundManaged by Whiz Partners Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Ltd (President: Kazuya Oyama, hereinafter referred to as ""SuMi TRUST Bank") is pleased to announce that as a strategic partner we have decided tomake investments in Healthcare New Platform Fund Investment Limited partnership(Hereinafter "HNP Fund") as a Limited Partnership (Hereinafter "LP").
１． Background
The lack of access to appropriate medical care due to various factors such as education,
income disparity, and unmet medical needs (diseases for which effective treatment methods
have not been established) has become a social issue, and it is partly due to the fact that thecost of drug development is rising year by year.
In order to reduce drug development costs, the pharmaceutical industry is required to shift
from a vertically integrated model of drug development processes to a horizontal division oflabor model that utilizes outsourcing.
2. Outline of the Project(1) Fund Overview
Fund Name

Healthcare New Platform Fund
Investment Limited partnershipInvestment

Whiz Partners Inc.

ManagementCompany
Investment
Targets

Healthcare Platform Company

(2) Outline of the asset management company
Whiz Partners Inc., the manager of the HNP Fund, is an independent investment
management company based in Tokyo that focuses on alternative assets such as growthinvestments and global macro investments. In addition to the healthcare field, we are alsofamiliar with technology fields such as information technology and artificial intelligence. We
are also a signatory to Japan Impact-driven Financing Initiative (*1), which conducts impact
investing that pursues the simultaneous creation of positive and measurable social andenvironmental impacts in parallel with financial returns through the development of investee
companies.
The HNP Fund will invest to new platform companies in healthcare, including Axcelead,
Inc. (*2), the first healthcare platform company in Japan that started business by taking overTakeda Pharmaceutical Company's drug discovery platform business, and ARCALIS, Inc.,
which provides drug discovery support, as well as contract development and manufacturingbusiness (CDMO business) for messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines.
３． Our Role
In order to financially support challenges and initiatives aimed at solving social issues, weare promoting 500 billion yen in impact equity investment initiatives toward 2030. We havebeen working to create new investment opportunities and collaborate with our customers inthese fields, including LP investments in the life science field. With this investment, we willfurther strengthen these activities and support the growth of Japan global healthcare platform
companies to further contribute to solving the social issue of "unmet medical needs" anddeveloping the drug discovery ecosystem in Japan.
*1 Japan Impact-driven Financing Initiative
An initiative in which multiple financial institutions that believe that the purpose offinancial institutions is to comprehensively grasp impacts and lead to the resolution ofenvironmental and social issues, and promote the practice of impact-oriented investment andlending (https://www.impact-driven-finance-initiative.com/en/)*2 Axcelead, Inc. (https://www.axcelead-hd.com/?page_id=825)
Axcelead is a group of companies that develops a drug discovery platform business centeredon Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners, Inc. (ADDP), Japan’s first integrated drug discovery
solution provider, which took over Takeda’s drug discovery platform business in 2017. In
Axcelead, not only ADDP, but there are three more subsidiaries, including

ARCALIS, Inc.

(https:// corp.arcalis.co.jp/), A-Digital, Inc., established in response to a partial businesstransfer from Hitachi High-Tech Co., Ltd., to develop a drug discovery digital platform that
improves drug discovery efficiency 100 times by promoting the digitalization of all processesof drug discovery, and PassPort Technologies, Inc., a San Diego-based company that develops
formulation of drugs combination with next-generation transdermal drug delivery technology.
Ends