I have covered Japan-based OrganTech (previously known as Organ Technologies) for many years due to the company’s affiliation with Dr. Takashi Tsuji and RIKEN (Japan). I have covered Dr. Tsuji’s work for over a decade now. I regularly update this post with the latest developments on top. Special thanks to “Theo” who e-mails me so many of these updates from Japanese sources.
Update: December 18, 2024
“When one door (Stemson) closes, another one opens.”
OrganTech to Test Hair Multiplication in Humans in 2025
Yesterday, OrganTech (Japan) applied for human testing permission to the Japanese government’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. More specifically, to the ethics committee. For some reason, they spell the company name as Organtec. The blurb in the middle of the below image reads: “Organtec Co., Ltd. Ethics Committee for Academic Research Involving Human Subjects.” Note that it is translated from Japanese.
Update 1: More details here.
Update 2: Affiliated institutions can be seen here. It looks like this must be related to hair, since two of the named companies (Tokyo Memorial Clinic and Sato Beauty Clinic) specialize in treating hair loss.
They previously announced their aim to begin human trials for their hair multiplication technology in 2024. It looks like this will likely happen in 2025, assuming government permission is granted. Per the prior news from December 6 2024, OrganTech’s human clinical trials for the company’s next-generation teeth bioimplant will definitely begin in 2025. So I assume that permission for teeth has already been granted.
Update: December 6, 2024
OrganTech has become a member of the prestigious Japanese Business Federation Keidanren (described as the voice of big business in Japan). The Keidanren website has a page on OrganTech in their December 2024 new member introduction (they call the company “Organtec”).
In the description, they mention that human clinical trials for the company’s next-generation teeth bioimplant will begin this fiscal year. When it comes to hair, OrganTech is described as:
“The first in the world to develop first-generation hair regeneration by transplanting regenerated hair follicle primordia. They have also developed a pipeline that includes second-generation regenerated hair follicle primordia and third-generation regenerated hair follicles. The company will proceed sequentially with clinical development and commercialization.”
In a separate page, they include a message from Dr. Takashi Tsuji and also have two photos of OrganTech’s new laboratory.
Update: October 10, 2024
New CEO Yoshio Shimo
In a surprising turn of events, OrganTech has replaced its young CEO Takashi Kondo with Yoshio Shimo. And they have a new COO named Dr. Yoshitake Yamaguchi. The company did not as yet make any press release about this major change, but long time reader “Theo” let me know via e-mail.
Mr. Shimo was previously the CEO of Hino Motors (Japan), an important subsidiary of Toyota (Japan). Dr. Yamaguchi did make an announcement about his new position on Linkedin three days ago. He has a Phd in Physics and has worked for a range of companies over the past several decades. Often on a part-time basis.
Update: February 23, 2024
More great news. OrganTech (Japan) is entering the South Korean market. Their local partner OrganEcoTech will get exclusive rights to OrganTech’s artificial organ regenerative medicine technology, including hair growth. They also plan to enter the US regenerative medicine sector.
Update: February 20, 2024
OrganTech CEO Takashi Kondo Interview
A new interview with OrganTech CEO Dr. Takashi Kondo. Key quote:
In terms of hair regeneration, the future is just around the corner where people who suffer from thinning hair or alopecia will no longer have to worry about it.
He also says that they can increase the number of hairs from 200 to 20,000 via Dr. Tsuji’s autologous hair multiplication process. Hair and teeth regeneration remain their primary areas of focus. He also mentions the progress in artificial skin regeneration technology and and his desire to see a world without the need for animal testing.
The company currently only has six employees. Five researchers at RIKEN in Kobe; and one (himself, the CEO and person in charge of business and finance) in Tokyo. Per the news below from earlier this month, OrganTech will hire and additional six new scientists by summer.
They are being approached by many pharmaceutical and beauty industry companies for partnership opportunities. Ultimately, this will translate into faster fundraising, ecomomies of scale and a lower final cost of treatment.
Update: February 16, 2024
Reader “Theo” regularly e-mails me very unique info from Asia that I would never have found by myself. I could not get the second link below to translate properly, but I trust what “Theo” said. So I am pasting his words in the below three bullet points with minor grammar changes by me.
As always, Dr. Takashi Tsuji sounds very sincere. In the first link below, read his recollection of the two big tragedies at RIKEN. OrganTech seems very focused and is unlikely to repeat the past fundraising related mistakes from the Tsuji team.
- Dr. Takashi Tsuji gave an interview and presentation to a Tokyo University student group two months ago. They visited his very expensive lab and he explained to them his vision about OrganTech’s future. They got far more funding that they need, from several different companies. Their vision is to make OrganTech an off-shore company for groundbreaking research from different scientists who are looking for funding.
- Dr. Tsuji plans to create a consortium that could be called a “second RIKEN” by establishing companies for each business to socially implement regenerative medicine technology, with OrganTech at its core.
Two Part Interview and Presentation
https://note.com/utdiligent/n/n78bd096e3ab5
https://note.com/utdiligent/n/n7fce80d6710f
- OrganTech is hiring 6 new scientists by the end of April 2024. After June, they will move to new offices and a research center in the Harumi neighborhood of Tokyo. It seems like they may start clinical trials around that time for both hair and teeth. Their artificial skin business is also advancing.
https://jp.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=6ce284d70b0a789f&tk=1hmpusbgu2b1p002&from=serp&vjs=3
Update: June 29, 2023
OrganTech Wins Future Award 2023 for its Organ Regenerative Medicine Technology
Congratulations to Dr. Miho Ogawa of OrganTech for winning Japan’s prestigious “The Economist Future Award 2023“. Per my new Japanese correspondent (old ones were “nosyu” and “Fuji Maru“), this award is sponsored by the “Economist Future Awards 2023 Executive Committee” and supported by the renowned Mainichi Shimbun newspaper agency. There were 225 nominated companies, of whom 15 got awards spread across 5 categories. Dr. Ogawa only became CEO/Director of OrganTech in early 2023.
Make sure to read the detailed interview with Dr. Miho Ogawa that I also posted earlier this month. She started working at Dr. Takashi Tsuji’s lab in 2005 at the Tokyo University of Science when she was a student. Thereafter she joined Organ Technologies, which folded in October 2020 due to fundraising issues that were exacerbated by the Corona crisis.
Now she is back with OrganTech, and I am getting positive vibes yet again for Dr. Tsuji’s hair multiplication work finally reaching fruition. The prior issues with fundraising inexperience and surprise pandemic will surely not be repeated. Japan is home to one of the oldest populations in the world, and also home to one of the fastest clinical trial processes in the world. Especially when it comes to regenerative medicine and anti-aging treatments.
Make sure to keep checking OrganTech’s website for new developments. Per my prior updates, they are aiming to start hair regeneration related human clinical trials in 2024. And they want to offer their hair multiplication treatment in clinics in 2026. I assume they can move this fast due to their past decade of work combined with Japan’s favorable regulations. However, as most readers know, their original goal had been 2020, prior to the earlier mentioned disruptions.
Update: June 1, 2023
Japan: Global Hub for Hair and Tooth Regeneration
An interesting new interview with OrganTech’s confident representative director Dr. Miho Ogawa. It looks like the team is very serious about making Japan the global hub for hair and tooth generation. And they are keen to avoid repeating past fundraising and commercialization related mistakes.
The other representative director is Takashi Kondo (see his recent interview), who is in charge of business planning and fundraising. Ms. Ogawa is in charge of research and development and technology.
Lead scientist and OrganTech owner Dr. Takashi Tsuji remains fully involved of course. The company is scheduled to conduct clinical research within one to two years for practical application. With Japan’s fast track regulations, this treatment could still get to clinics in 2026 as was announced by Dr. Takashi Tsuji last year. Key quote:
“In the near future, this world-first, Japan-originated organ regenerative medicine management will shock the world and contribute to improving the QOL of many people.”
Update: February 11, 2023
OrganTech: New name for Organ Technologies
After ending its partnership with Riken and Dr. Takashi Tsuji in 2021, Organ Technologies is back. It is renaming itself to OrganTech, and this time the founder himself is Dr. Tsuji. A little confusing, but read the next paragraph. OrganTech plans to start hair regeneration related clinical trials in 2024. And yet again they have a new website. They are also getting funding from Kobayashi Pharmaceutical.
According to the latest press release, it seems like founder Dr. Tsuji will remain the team leader and OrganTech is still affiliated with RIKEN. However, Dr. Tsuji cannot be officially titled CEO, since RIKEN does not allow its top scientists to be CEOs of venture firms. This last point was e-mailed to me by a reader.
I previously mentioned how Dr. Tsuji took over Organ Technologies’ debt in 2021 in order to prevent patent loss. He also announced that they plan to offer their hair multiplication treatment in 2026. So this new development means they are on schedule. Note that Japan has favorable regulations in relation to clinical trial speed when it comes to regenerative medicine.
They are also very serious about fundraising this time. On March 6th 2023, they plan to present their technology on Tokyo Innovative Business Day. On OrganTech’s website, it says that the company’s purpose is to “create functional organs.” They they emphasize the two main areas of Dr. Tsuji’s past work:
“Technologies that can contribute to hair regenerative medicine and dental regenerative medicine.”
Also of interest, the following patents are assigned to Organ Technologies. These now belong to OrganTech.
Jan 5, 2020
I have mentioned many times that Dr. Takashi Tsuji and his hair loss treatment protocol holds the best short-term prospects for a hair loss cure. Mr. Tsuji is working in partnership with RIKEN, Organ Technologies and Kyocera. The treatment can come to market faster because 1) It is autologous in nature; and 2) Clinical trials in Japan get finished faster due to favorable government regulations.
All four of these Japan-based partners have their own sites (in Japanese and English). So it is hard to keep a track of new developments.
Organ Technologies and Takashi Tsuji
Organ Technologies has updated its website (Update: They replaced it yet again with a new one in 2023. See upper sections of this post for latest updates). A goldmine of information is available on the new site.
The hair regeneration page has a list of publications at the bottom. Apparently, the company has developed three generations of its technology over the years. Mostly via the work of Dr. Takashi Tsuji and RIKEN (in Kobe, Japan).
I will add more to this post in the coming days, but wanted to start the discussion now. Please only post comments about Organ Technologies and the work of its partners in this post.
