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preface
Foreword
China's innovative drug research and development is entering a new stage. With the continuous expansion of the world, the architecture of the R&D ecosystem is being reshaped to be based on the continuous differentiation and innovation capabilities of the world.
Transformation that begins with deep basic research is the core part of the architecture. In the midst of this,Epigenetics** drugs as one of the breakthrough outlets, is expected to dominate **.
Internationally, at the end of last year, Merck finished with 13The acquisition of IMAGO Biosciences for a total price of 500 million US dollars detonated the "niche" epigenetics for a while. At present, more than 10 epigenetic** drugs have been approved for marketing around the world, and the indications are more limited to hematologic tumors.
Pull the vision back home,Co-founded by Academician Xu Guoliang, Dr. Wu Haiping and Dr. Mi Yuan, Sailan Pharma is standing at the cusp of epigenetics with a "platform + asset" model and differentiated target and indication layout.
Academicians lead the team, and industry bigwigs bless
Won nearly 300 million yuan in financing in two years
Founded in 2019, Sylan Pharma wants to develop and innovate based on the "next generation" epigenetics mechanism**.
For the less "mature" epigenetics track, the scientific accumulation and industrial transformation ability of the founding team are considered to be the key to supporting a startup.
Xu Guoliang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is involved in the operation of Sylan Pharma as the chief scientific advisor, Dr. Mi Yuan, who has many years of experience in the research and development of tumor epigenetic targets, and Dr. Wu Haiping, who has rich experience in continuous entrepreneurship and R&D of multinational pharmaceutical companies, is the chief operating officer.
With the decline of early-stage projects in the primary market, the founding team like Sylan Pharma is deeply loved by investorsThis configuration means that the combination of resources, technology, and commercialization capabilities, and the fact that all three founders have a deep understanding of epigenetics, is even more valuable.
Therefore, since its establishment, Sailan Pharma has been supported by a number of first-tier venture capitalists. Today, Selam Pharma announced that it has recently completed the byDachen Caizhi** and Hangzhou Heda** co-led the A+ round of financing, with an amount of nearly 100 million yuan；Completed at the beginning of 2022Zeyue Venture Capital and CDH Investments co-led nearly RMB 200 million in Series A financingPreviously, it also received angel rounds and pre-A rounds of financing supported by Shenzhen Capital and Sany Innovation, Hengxu Capital, Zeyue Capital, Kaitai Capital, and CDH Investment.
In the process of making breakthroughs in China's innovative drugs, more biotechs like Selan Pharma need to rely on the deep basic research accumulation of China's top scientist team to develop truly original innovative drugs.
Platform + asset two-wheel drive
In recent years, the research and development of epigenetic target anti-tumor drugs has been in the ascendant, and the birth of innovative drugs represented by DNA methylase inhibitors, histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, IDH inhibitors, EZH2 inhibitors, etc., has continuously accelerated the research and development process of this track.
At the same time, the research and development of new drugs in the field of epigenetics is also facing three major challenges, one is how to differentiate the target and mechanism, the second is how to achieve more breakthroughs in solid tumors, and the third is how to combine with existing **.
In the face of the above problems, the R&D path of Selan Pharma also gives a real answer.
At present, Sylan has developed more than 10 first-in-class or best-in-class projects, among which, two pipelines have entered the clinical stage this year, namely CTS2190 and CTS2016, and the PRMT5-MTA complex inhibitor will also enter the phase 1 clinical trial in 2024.
Sylan Pharmaceutical's R&D pipeline, screenshot from the official website.
In the face of the current situation that the indications of marketed epigenetic drugs are limited to hematologic tumors, Celan Pharma is also a pioneer, and in the research pipeline, CTS2190, which has the fastest research and development progress, points to the indications of solid tumors such as pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, and lung cancer with MTAP deficiency, and is expected to be combined with a variety of standards**. In addition, Salan Pharma also combines different mechanisms such as immune activation and synthetic lethality for drug development in solid tumors, which reflects Selam's pursuit of new targets and new mechanisms.
Behind the rapid breakthrough of the original new drug is the embodiment of the core competitiveness of EpigenPlus, the technology platform of Cylan Pharmaceutical.
The EpigenPlus platform integrates multiple technologies in new drug development, including target discovery capabilities, drug tool models, and molecular optimization capabilities. At the same time, the enhancement of platform capabilities will help systematically improve the scientificity of target discovery and mechanism research, and strengthen the R&D and expansion capabilities of pipelines. With the support of the platform, it can continuously output pipelines and form new ones with other methods, which is expected to achieve the effect of 1+1>2.
At present, the rapid advancement of the core pipeline has preliminarily verified the benefits of the EpigenPlus platform, and after the continuous deepening of the platform construction, it is expected to achieve a steady stream of product output.
Introduction to the EpigenPlus platform, screenshot from the official website.
EpigenPlus not only enables Sälan Pharma's internal R&D, but also provides standards-compliant technical support for external collaborations.
At present, Selan Pharma has carried out in-depth cooperation with Roche China Accelerator, several research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai, Fudan University, Jiaotong University and other first-class research institutions and a number of top domestic hospitals on the EpigenPlus technology platform.
summary
Summary
After more than 20 years of development, the transformation of basic epigenetics research has achieved fruitful results, and the drugs based on epigenetics have shown an accelerated trend in recent years, which has also brought more opportunities to Selan Pharmaceutical.
At present, the epigenetics track is in the stage of a new round of start-up, and the competition is not fierce. The world's largest pharmaceutical companies have entered the market through internal R&D, equity cooperation, mergers and acquisitions, etc., and the development model of domestic biotech is represented by Celan Pharmaceutical, which closely combines basic research and industrial transformation, so it can be said that an in-depth understanding of epigenetic mechanisms is the threshold for entry.
On the basis of the strong superposition of resources, technology and commercialization, the founding team of Selan Pharma is running out of the dark horse posture of epigenetics track by virtue of the two-wheel drive model of platform + assets.