PROMOTING INDEPENDENCE: Worries about
father’s mouth helped overcome ‘valley of death’
By HIDEO SATO/ Staff Writer
March 3, 2017 at 07:10 JST

Editor's note: This is the second of a three­part
series on the integration of business and socialwelfare.
Kohei Nagatoshi was at his wits’ end.
His company was losing faith in his decade ofresearch into “nisin A,” a peptide created by aplant-derived lactic acid bacterium. A
breakthrough was nowhere in sight.
In winter 2011, a desperate Nagatoshi sent an email to a stranger, Daisuke Teshima, 46, thepresident of Trife Inc. in Yokohama. The
researcher had heard that Teshima started anorganic cosmetics brand.
About two months later, the two met in Tokyo.
Nagatoshi had prepared his pitch to work withTeshima in creating and commercializing a new
natural cosmetic by using nisin A.
Daisuke Teshima, right, president of Trife Inc.,and Kohei Nagatoshi, who heads Yasashii(kind) Laboratory Inc. (Provided by Trife Inc.)

But Teshima was not convinced.
“I could not understand the significance of theresearch, and I had suspicions that I might beused,” Teshima said.

He limited his relationship with Nagatoshi to e-mail exchanges.
The situation, however, changed about a year later when Teshima’s father was diagnosed withterminal cancer.
Nagatoshi had always wanted to create products that were “kind” to people. That’s why he named
his venture firm Yasashii (kind) Laboratory Inc. Headquartered in Chikushino, Fukuoka
Prefecture, in western Japan, the laboratory has only a single researcher: Nagatoshi, 45.
He began the company five years ago.
Nagatoshi was working for a dairy product manufacturer in Fukuoka when he was involved innisin A research in cooperation with Kyushu University and others.
The substance was used widely as a food preservative, but Nagatoshi was looking for a use for apurer form of the substance that could be mass-produced.

It was Teshima who came up with the idea for a new application.
Struggling against cancer, Teshima’s father developed severe oral ulcers, and mold grew within hismouth. His ability to gargle and spit out liquids weakened, leading him to mistakenly swallow antibacterial agents that caused diarrhea.
Teshima realized the importance of oral cavity care for elderly people and asked Nagatoshi about
the possibility of using nisin A not for cosmetics but for a teeth-brushing gel.
If such a gel was safe to swallow, there would be no worries about the ill effects from mistakenly
ingesting it.
Moreover, the product could address the issue of finding stable jobs for disabled people and help toalleviate the problem of what they should do after their parents die.
The idea was to employ disabled people at facilities around the nation to sell the brushing gel.
Strong demand for the product was expected in Japan’s aging society.
Although nisin A worked on bacteria that causes cavities, it had no effect on periodontal bacterium,
which affects the gums.
Through trial and error, Nagatoshi overcame that deficiency by developing “neonisin,” whichcontains plum extract to deal with the periodontal bacterium.
Nagatoshi sent Teshima a trial product, which was used on his father. The father developed nostomach problems even when he swallowed the substance. Teshima then believed he could
commercialize the product.
Nagatoshi established Yasashii Laboratory to push commercialization and obtained a patent forneonisin.
In the world of venture firms created through business-academia cooperation, the term “valley ofdeath” describes a situation in which commercialization of research results goes nowhere becauseof poor coordination between the two sectors.
Kenji Sonomoto, a professor of agriculture at the Kyushu University graduate school who
conducted research with Nagatoshi, said, “Teshima was a huge presence in being able to overcome
the valley of death.”
Venture firms with no sales networks often rely on the Internet for sales. But because of his past
volunteer experience, Teshima already knew a number of individuals connected to facilities fordisabled people.
He had a few things he could teach researchers, such as how to recruit supporters using social
networking services.
Teshima’s father once worked as a prosecutor. He died toward the end of 2012.
Seven months later, Oral Peace hit the market. But sales problems arose.
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