BUSINESS INSIGHTS
Insilico Medicine | January 18, 2022
Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, a leading innovation-driven international healthcare group in China and Insilico Medicine, an end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery and development company, entered into a collaboration agreement to advance the discovery and development of drugs targeting a number of different targets globally through the use of AI technology.
This strategic collaboration includes an AI-driven drug discovery research and development (R&D) collaboration on four biological targets, as well as the co-development of Insilico's QPCTL program. Insilico will receive a total upfront payment of $13 million for the R&D collaboration projects and the co-development of the QPCTL program, potential milestone-based payments, and share commercialization profits from the QPCTL program. In addition, Fosun Pharma will make an equity investment in Insilico.
"We are pleased to enter into strategic collaboration with Insilico. Fosun Pharma is committed to promoting innovative R&D, and is oriented towards fulfilling unmet clinical needs and improving products' accessibility. We look forward to working with Insilico to leverage the technological and clinical development strengths of both companies, jointly improving the efficiency of innovative drug R&D, and benefiting more patients worldwide,"
Yifang Wu, Chairman and CEO of Fosun Pharma
The collaboration aims to combine Insilico's end-to-end AI-driven drug discovery platforms and Fosun Pharma's clinical development and commercial expertise to discover and develop a portfolio of novel therapeutics. Pursuant to the collaboration agreement, Insilico will take responsibility for delivering a preclinical candidate for the QPCTL program and advancing it to IND stage, after which, Fosun Pharma will then conduct human clinical studies and co-develop the candidate globally. In parallel, Fosun Pharma's R&D team will nominate four therapeutic targets to be assessed by Insilico's AI platform and R&D team, who are responsible of advancing drug candidates to IND stage.
As part of the collaboration, Fosun Pharma will secure access to Insilico's PandaOmics and Chemistry42 platforms in order to advance Fosun Pharma's internal AI-powered discovery and development efforts.
"In partnering with Fosun Pharma, a leading pharmaceutical company, we begin a new era of AI-powered end-to-end drug discovery and development as human-machine collaboration becoming the new normal in precision drug discovery and development. We previously demonstrated that AI can be used to discover novel targets and generate novel molecules that can be tested in humans in record time. Now, we are partnering with one of the leading scientific teams in the pharmaceutical industry to take this technology to the next level for the benefit of patients worldwide", said Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine.
About Fosun Pharma
Founded in 1994, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. is a leading innovation-driven international healthcare group in China. Fosun Pharma strategically operates businesses in the pharmaceutical and health industry, including pharmaceutical manufacturing, medical devices and medical diagnosis, and healthcare services. Through equity participation in Sinopharm Co., Ltd., Fosun Pharma's business extends to pharmaceutical distribution and retail.
About Insilico Medicine
Insilico Medicine, an end-to-end AI-driven drug discovery and development company, is connecting biology, chemistry, and clinical trials analysis using next-generation AI systems. Insilico Medicine has developed AI platforms that utilize deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers, and other modern machine learning techniques to discover novel targets and to design novel molecular structures with desired properties. Insilico Medicine is delivering breakthrough solutions to discover and develop innovative drugs for cancer, fibrosis, immunity, central nervous system diseases and aging-related diseases.
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BUSINESS INSIGHTS
AVITA Medical | April 22, 2022
Louis Drapeau has resigned from the Board of Directors of AVITA Medical, Inc. a regenerative medicine company that is developing and commercializing a technology platform that enables point-of-care autologous skin restoration for multiple unmet needs, effective April 29, 2022. Mr. Drapeau's resignation is not the result of a disagreement with the Company over any of its operations, policies, or procedures. Rather, he is stepping down for personal reasons.
Since January 2016, Mr. Drapeau has served as Chair of the Audit Committee and as a non-executive Director of AVITA Medical. Louis Drapeau had already stepped down as Chair of the Audit Committee as of February 23, 2022, as disclosed in the Company Form 10-KT dated March 1, 2022. James Corbett was appointed Chair of the Audit Committee in his place as of February 23, 2022, as disclosed in the Company Form 10-KT dated March 1, 2022.
“We want to thank Louis for his time, dedication and contributions to AVITA Medical over the past six years. We appreciate his insights and dedication to the Company and wish him the best.”
Lou Panaccio, Chairman of the Board
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PHARMACY MARKET
Everest Medicines | September 23, 2021
AbCellera and Everest Medicines Limited announced that they have entered into a multi-year collaboration and license agreement to discover therapeutic antibodies for up to 10 targets selected by Everest. The partnership will help to expand Everest’s portfolio of novel medicines across multiple indications, with the initial programs focusing on targets in oncology.
We are proud to partner with Everest as they build a robust pipeline of innovative medicines for patients in Asia and beyond, We believe our full-stack discovery engine, combined with Everest’s clinical development capabilities, creates synergy and the opportunity to speed the delivery of therapies to patients around the world.
- Carl Hansen, Ph.D., CEO and President of AbCellera.
By partnering with AbCellera, Everest will benefit from an operating system that supports many antibody modalities to unlock new target classes and open new disease areas to therapeutic access. The collaboration will leverage the full breadth of AbCellera’s technology stack, including sourcing fully humanized antibodies from the Trianni Mouse®, sourcing single domain antibodies from camelids, and combining any two antibodies to create native bispecifics using the OrthoMabTM protein engineering platform.
This collaboration will allow us to gain access to AbCellera’s cutting edge, AI-powered antibody discovery platform, which will greatly accelerate and increase the efficiency of our internal discovery efforts.
- Jennifer Yang, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Everest Medicines.
Under the terms of the agreement, Everest will have the rights to develop and commercialize antibodies resulting from the collaboration. AbCellera will receive research payments and is eligible to receive from Everest downstream clinical and commercial milestone payments and royalties on net sales of products.
About Everest Medicines
Everest Medicines is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing transformative pharmaceutical products that address critical unmet medical needs for patients in Asia markets. The management team of Everest Medicines has deep expertise and an extensive track record of high-quality clinical development, regulatory affairs, CMC, business development and operations in Asia and with leading global pharmaceutical companies. Everest Medicines has built a portfolio of ten potentially global first-in-class or best-in-class molecules, many of which are in late stage clinical development. The Company’s therapeutic areas of interest include oncology, autoimmune disorders, cardio-renal diseases and infectious diseases.
About AbCellera Biologics Inc.
AbCellera is a technology company that searches, decodes, and analyzes natural immune systems to find antibodies that its partners can develop into drugs to prevent and treat disease. AbCellera partners with drug developers of all sizes, from large pharmaceutical to small biotechnology companies, empowering them to move quickly, reduce cost, and tackle the toughest problems in drug development.
AbCellera Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements are based on management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. All statements contained in this release other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our ability to develop, commercialize and achieve market acceptance of our current and planned products and services, our research and development efforts, and other matters regarding our business strategies, use of capital, results of operations and financial position, and plans and objectives for future operations.
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