In November 2023, a signing ceremony for the product development cooperation framework agreement between Shanghai Escugen Biotechnology Co., Ltd. ("Escugen") and Foreseen Biotechnology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. ("Foreseen") was successfully held in Shanghai. Both parties have reached a strategic cooperation for the joint development of ADCs based on Escugen's linker-payload technology, EZWi-Fit®, and the First-in-class targets and antibodies discovered by Foreseen. The first ADC target of the cooperation is highly innovative, standing out from the current ADC development landscape where target overlap is common. Preliminary collaborative research results indicate that this ADC molecule has unprecedented significant advantages in terms of efficacy and drug resistance in various tumor models, and has demonstrated good safety in primate toxicology experiments. It has differentiated clinical indications and development pathways, and is expected to successfully address the unmet clinical needs of a wide range of tumor treatments. The current value of the cooperation project exceeds 5 billion yuan, and it has attracted the high attention of several overseas multinational corporations (MNCs), with discussions already underway for the licensing of overseas rights. Moving forward, both parties will continue to commit to in-depth cooperation in the development, clinical research, and commercialization of ADC product series.
Escugen is a clinical-stage ADC new drug development company with a comprehensive new drug research and development pipeline and capabilities, and has established its next-generation ADC technology platform with independent intellectual property rights, EZWi-Fit®.
Foreseen has been deeply involved in the field of mass spectrometry-proteomics for many years and possesses several world-leading, continuously updated, optimized, and comprehensive integrated proteomics technologies, including its core tools DeepSEEN® for blood and SurfSEEN® for tissues, which are currently at the forefront globally in single-cell proteomics. Foreseen independently acquires high-quality, high-depth, multi-dimensional, and unbiased panoramic proteomics information through full quality control. Utilizing its proprietary integrated omics system, PrOmics®, Foreseen discovers true disease mechanisms and develops more precise, highly verifiable, and translatable innovative biomarkers and drug targets.
This cooperation aims to accelerate the development of First-in-class ADC drugs through the organic combination of each party's advantageous technologies, achieving mutual benefits and win-win results.
Professor Huang Chaolan, Founder and Chairman of Foreseen, said: "Escugen is a clinical-stage ADC drug development company with independent intellectual property rights and a unique and leading ADC linker-payload platform. The ADC drugs we jointly develop have demonstrated highly excellent efficacy and safety. The first ADC drug molecule, FS001, has great therapeutic potential and market prospects in difficult-to-treat cancers such as colorectal cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, and squamous cell lung cancer. We believe that FS001 will become an ADC therapeutic drug with both First-in-class and Best-in-class attributes in the global new drug target field. This strategic cooperation between Foreseen and Escugen is a strong alliance that will surely elevate the treatment of solid tumors to a new level and open up a new horizon for precision cancer therapy. We are confident that through joint efforts, both parties will establish a long-term and in-depth cooperation in ADC drug development, achieving complementary strengths and mutual benefits."
Dr. Zhou Qing, Founder and CEO of Escugen, said: "Foreseen is an excellent proteomics research and development company with a one-stop integrated proteomics capability, from mining clinical proteomics information, discovering and validating targets and antibodies, to product transformation. In our previous cooperation, Foreseen has demonstrated its ultra-high strength in the discovery of First-in-class targets and antibodies. The first ADC molecule of our cooperation has significant efficacy and safety. The in-depth strategic cooperation between Escugen and Foreseen in the ADC field will greatly help to expand the EZWi-Fit® platform technology and other innovative achievements of Escugen to a broader range of First-in-Class treatment targets and clinical indications."
About Foreseen Biotechnology
Founded in 2021 by Professor Huang Chaolan with support from NEST.Bio, Sequoia Capital, Yuanmu Capital, and CMB International, Foreseen is a rapidly growing biotechnology company with a team of founding executives who have experience in multinational pharmaceutical R&D. Foreseen has established research and development centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuxi. The Beijing headquarters, covering over a thousand square meters, operates multiple high-precision mass spectrometers for proteomics acquisition in clinical cohorts and target screening using the integrated omics system PrOmics®. The Shanghai R&D center, located in the core area of Zhangjiang Medical Valley in Shanghai, is led by several overseas Ph.D.s with rich experience in innovative project R&D in multinational pharmaceutical companies, focusing on mining clinical proteomics information and downstream product transformation. It possesses top-tier translational medicine capabilities, including drug target selection, target validation, antibody screening, antibody validation, development of diagnostic reagent kits for biomarkers, and early development of therapeutic drugs. The Wuxi R&D center is committed to the late-stage clinical transformation and approval of diagnostic products for psychiatric and neurological diseases.
About Escugen Biotechnology
Established in 2017 in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Pudong New District, Shanghai, Escugen is a clinical-stage ADC new drug development company with comprehensive new drug research and development capabilities. 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 lead clinical pipeline, 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 has successfully filed for patent priority and obtained a registered trademark.
The EZWi-Fit® technology platform 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. Escugen has systematically completed mechanistic studies of the platform technology, elucidating the mechanisms at the molecular, cellular, and in vivo levels regarding anti-multiple drug resistance, bystander effect, and in vivo activity in low-expression target tumor models, providing convincing objective evidence for the platform's competitive advantages over international benchmark technologies. Escugen has conducted in vitro and in vivo studies on ADCs targeting multiple antigens using this platform technology, obtaining evidence of superiority, and has also achieved excellent safety data in non-human primate safety evaluations for several ADCs.
EZWi-Fit® surpasses international benchmark ADC technologies in multiple dimensions. Escugen is leveraging this platform to expand its pipeline of "First-in-Class" and "Best-in-Class" ADCs.
For cooperation or business inquiries related to Escugen's EZWi-Fit® ADC technology platform, please contact hefeng@escugen.com, or +86 18918778631.
For cooperation or business inquiries related to Foreseen's integrated proteomics and single-cell proteomics technology platforms, please contact contact@foreseenbio.com.
