In May 2023, Shanghai Escugen Biotechnology Co., Ltd. ("Escugen") announced the completion of a $100 million Series A+ financing round. This round was led by Shenzhen Toposcend Capital Co., Ltd., with participation from Tsinghua Holdings Venture Capital and existing shareholder Shanghai Zhangjiang Healthcare Venture Capital Co., Ltd. StartPointAdvisors served as the exclusive financial advisor for this transaction.
Founded in 2017 by veteran returnees with decades of experience in antibody drug discovery, process development, and quality management in both international and domestic biopharmaceutical companies, Escugen has continuously focused on the development of innovative ADCs. By leveraging target innovation, discovering differentiated competitive advantages, and expanding differentiated clinical pathways through specific combination therapies, Escugen continuously introduces next-generation innovative drugs. Escugen also has a team covering the entire professional chain of biopharmaceutical R&D, with functions spanning antibody engineering, new drug development, bioconjugation, preclinical research, process and quality research, and especially the scarce clinical R&D in the industry.
Escugen currently has three pipeline products in clinical trials, including ADCs with "best-in-class" potential and innovative antibodies targeting "first-in-class" targets. The lead pipeline, ESG401, is a Trop2-targeted ADC that has demonstrated significant safety, efficacy, and process advantages in all research data. It is currently in Phase Ib/II clinical trials, with early clinical data showing significant safety characteristics and positive efficacy in heavily pretreated metastatic triple-negative breast cancer and HR-positive breast cancer. Escugen has established its next-generation ADC technology platform with independent intellectual property rights, using efficient and low-toxicity camptothecin-based payloads. Compared to existing GGFG-Dxd class ADCs, this platform not only has higher antitumor activity but also strong resistance to drug resistance. It also demonstrates strong and durable antitumor activity in low-abundance, high-heterogeneity target tumors and high-load models, with excellent pharmacokinetic characteristics. Escugen is leveraging this opportunity to actively layout a series of innovative targets and ADC pipelines with greater safety and efficacy advantages through diverse collaborations.
Escugen's other clinical pipeline products include ESG206, a monoclonal antibody targeting a novel target, which has an international leading position in the field and is aimed at relapsed/refractory and difficult-to-treat lymphomas and leukemias, with the potential to further expand into various autoimmune diseases. ESG103, a single-domain antibody, will be combined with a partner's patented new drug to treat major tumor indications not covered by similar drugs.
Dr. Zhou Qing, Founder and CEO of Escugen, said: "We are very grateful for the recognition of Escugen by high-quality investment institutions such as Shenzhen Toposcend Capital Co., Ltd. and Tsinghua Holdings Venture Capital, and for the continued support of our existing shareholder Shanghai Zhangjiang Healthcare Venture Capital Co., Ltd. The successful completion of this financing round provides financial security for the company to rapidly advance its first clinical project, the Trop-2 ADC, to the registration clinical stage and to initiate commercial production of samples. Escugen will continue to focus on the development of innovative ADC new drugs, guided by unmet clinical needs, with the clinical development of ESG401 as the lead, and relying on the next-generation ADC platform technology. By integrating antibody and ADC platform technology innovation, target innovation, and differentiated clinical development pathways, we will continue to create next-generation innovative ADC products to benefit global patients."
Zhang Gengsheng, Business Partner at Shenzhen Toposcend Capital Co., Ltd., said: "The clinical trials of Escugen's products have already demonstrated excellent safety and efficacy, with the potential to become best-in-class and provide patients with more options and clinical benefits. We believe that Escugen has the potential to grow into a towering tree, and we will continue to support the company's vigorous development in all aspects."
Qiu Qing, Managing Director at Tsinghua Holdings Venture Capital, said: "We are very pleased that Tsinghua Holdings Venture Capital can participate in this financing round of Escugen. Innovative antibody-drug conjugates are one of the cutting-edge fields in biopharmaceuticals, and we are optimistic about the continuous resolution of more unmet clinical needs by antibody-drug conjugates as a new type of drug. Escugen has strong innovation capabilities in antibody-drug conjugates and antibody-drug immune agonists. The company's pipeline layout balances innovation and risk. The core R&D assets of the company are in the first tier of domestic development and have shown positive signals in clinical trials. We have high expectations for the future performance of the company's products in clinical and market settings."
Gu Jiefeng, Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Zhangjiang Healthcare Venture Capital Co., Ltd., said: "Escugen relies on its own advantages, based on the discovery of innovative antibody targets, and makes multi-directional attempts with cautious selection of products and high-level process development. The company's team is experienced, stable, and highly coordinated, with strong execution capabilities. Shanghai Zhangjiang Healthcare Venture Capital Co., Ltd. will continue to support Escugen and look forward to the successful launch of the company's products in the future, bringing better therapeutic effects to Chinese patients."
Fu Jia, Managing Director at StartPointAdvisors, said: "Escugen has always been guided by target and technology innovation and clinical needs. With products entering clinical trials and continuously seeing clinical benefits for patients, the company's R&D strength has truly been validated. We are very pleased to cooperate with Escugen again and look forward to more of the company's excellent product pipelines entering the clinical stage."
About Shenzhen Toposcend Capital Co., Ltd.
Shenzhen Toposcend Capital Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Toposcend Capital") was established in January 2015 as an equity investment institution jointly initiated by Shenzhen Investment Holdings Co., Ltd., Qingdao Haier Technology Investment Co., Ltd., and Shenzhen Chuangdongfang Investment Co., Ltd. Toposcend Capital focuses on three core areas: industrial technology, digital intelligence, and life and health, and has built an investment management system led by industry research. The company closely collaborates with industrial capital to layout high-quality projects in the industrial chain, emphasizes promoting the continuous appreciation of invested projects through high-quality post-investment services and risk management, grows together with small and medium-sized micro-enterprises, drives the vigorous development of strategic emerging industry chains, and promotes urban scientific and technological innovation and industrial cultivation.
