On August 14, 2023, Shanghai Escugen Biotechnology Co., Ltd. ("Escugen") and Shanghai ChemExpress Co., Ltd. ("ChemExpress") reached a strategic cooperation agreement. The two parties have reached a consensus on the research of small molecule compounds for innovative ADC drugs, process development, and commercial production, and will conduct comprehensive cooperation.
Escugen focuses on the development of ADC new drugs and possesses a comprehensive new drug research and development pipeline and capabilities, as well as its next-generation ADC platform technology. ChemExpress has strong R&D capabilities in ADC small molecules and can provide one-stop comprehensive services and solutions. This cooperation aims to achieve mutual benefits and win-win results through complementary advantages and to consolidate and strengthen the professional technical advantages of both parties in their respective fields.
Dr. Zheng Baofu, Chairman of ChemExpress, said: "We are very pleased to reach a strategic cooperation with Escugen. Escugen's next-generation ADC technology platform, EZWi-Fit®, has independent intellectual property rights for its linker-payload technology, and ChemExpress has the capability to serve the R&D and production of ADC drugs both domestically and internationally. This cooperation with Escugen will further leverage the synergistic effects of both parties in the field of antibody-drug conjugates, accelerate the development of Escugen's antitumor ADC drugs, and bring benefits to patients worldwide as soon as possible."
Dr. Zhou Qing, Founder and CEO of Escugen, said: "ChemExpress is one of the earliest companies in China to study ADCs and has made in-depth and extensive technical accumulations and talent reserves in this field. Both parties have had long-term and fruitful cooperation. With the support of ChemExpress, Escugen has established its next-generation EZWi-Fit® ADC technology platform, which has distinct competitive advantages. This comprehensive strategic cooperation between Escugen and ChemExpress in the ADC field will help us expand our technical innovation achievements in the EZWi-Fit® platform and a broader range of ADC fields to more targets and clinical indications."
About ChemExpress
Founded in 2006, Shanghai ChemExpress Co., Ltd. (Stock Code: 688131) specializes in providing professional and efficient CRO & CDMO services for small molecules and new molecular type drugs to the global pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. The company is committed to creating an integrated service platform for the research, development, and production of drug molecule building blocks, tool compounds, intermediates, APIs, and formulations, accelerating the empowerment of global partners to achieve the entire process from preclinical to commercial production, making drug R&D more efficient, faster to market, and sooner to benefit human health.
After sixteen years of development, the company has established in-depth cooperative relationships with well-known pharmaceutical companies, research institutes, and CROs in Asia, Europe, America, and Oceania, and has undertaken R&D innovation projects from more than 7,000 global partners. It has been recognized as a high-tech enterprise, a national-level specialized, refined, and unique "little giant" enterprise, a Shanghai brand cultivation demonstration enterprise, and a Shanghai enterprise technology center. It has won several honors, including "Top 50 in China's Pharmaceutical R&D," "Top 20 in China's Pharmaceutical CDMO Enterprises," and the "First Prize for Technological Innovation" from the China Science Promotion Association. Looking to the future, the company will continue to focus on the development strategy of "industrialization, globalization, and branding," adhere to the service tenet of "everything for customers, everything originates from innovation," and deepen the market for R&D services and industrial application of small molecules and new molecular type drugs, aiming to become a world-class pharmaceutical R&D and production service enterprise with international competitiveness, promoting R&D innovation to improve the survival and quality of life of patients worldwide.
About Escugen Biotechnology
Established in 2017 in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Pudong New District, Shanghai, Escugen Biotechnology focuses on the development of ADC new drugs. The company was founded by veteran returnees with decades of R&D experience in both international and domestic biopharmaceutical companies. The founding team has accumulated rich and successful R&D experience in leading biopharmaceutical companies both domestically and internationally, with capabilities covering antibody discovery, bioconjugation, process development and quality research, preclinical and clinical studies. Escugen's core product, ESG-401, is a Trop2-targeted ADC that uses an innovative stable and degradable linker to significantly reduce off-target toxicity. Clinical data suggest that ESG-401 has a higher tolerable dose than other ADCs targeting the same antigen, with lower incidence and severity of off-target and on-target toxicities, demonstrating a clear safety advantage. The increased ADC dose and in-body exposure have led to encouraging efficacy in patients with advanced, heavily pretreated breast cancer, with significant antitumor effects on both visceral and intracranial metastases.
About the EZWi-Fit® ADC Technology Platform
EZWi-Fit® is Escugen's proprietary next-generation ADC technology platform, which employs a stable degradable linker and a topoisomerase I (TopI) inhibitor payload. ADCs generated by this platform targeting multiple antigens have shown significantly higher in vivo activity compared to other ADCs with TopI inhibitors as payloads; they still demonstrate robust antitumor activity in various drug resistance models with MMAE, Dxd, and other payload molecules; they stably exhibit tumor suppression and elimination in multiple PDX models with low target expression and high heterogeneity; and they possess favorable pharmacokinetic characteristics and safety. EZWi-Fit® surpasses international benchmark ADC technologies in multiple dimensions. Escugen is leveraging this platform to expand its pipeline of new targets and "best-in-class" ADC projects.
For cooperation or business inquiries related to Escugen's ADC technology platform, please contact hefeng@escugen.com, or +86 18918778631.
