36 Krypton Sailing learned that the international innovative drug R&D company, Fuwo Pharmaceutical, had completed a round A financing of nearly 100 million yuan before the deadline. This round of financing is led by Yiyao Xiantong New Pharmaceutical Foundation, and the existing shareholders and related parties are investing together. It is reported that the newly raised funds in this round will mainly focus on three: ⽅⾯⼀⼀⼀⼀⼀⼩⼩⼩⼩⼩ is a phase I clinical research launched by the company's fourth generation ⾮⼩⼩⼩ cell lung cancer targeting drug FWD1509; in China and the United States; ⼆ It is the IND declaration of several anti-tumor R&D pipelines (including the third generation oral SERD) and the preclinical study of other early pipelines; Third, the construction of R&D in Shanghai and the expansion of R&D management team.
In 2017, Shenzhen Fuwo Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. was a national new technology enterprise dedicated to international innovative drug research and development. Its products are mainly targeted at cancer and immune diseases. Speaking of entrepreneurial experience, Xu Liangliang, the co-founder and CEO of Fuwo Pharmaceutical, recalled that he and Zhu Chenggang, another founder, were classmates of Fuwo Pharmaceutical, and had studied in the Department of Physical Science and Technology (now the School of Life Sciences) of Tsinghua University. After graduation, Zhu Bo went to the United States to study, and his research topic during his study abroad was innovative medicine. After Bo graduated, Zhu Bo joined Novartis and AstraZeneca, two multinational pharmaceutical companies. Xu Bo, after obtaining a doctoral degree from Tsinghua University, entered the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine and Health (GIBH). During his tenure, Xu Bo was also exposed to innovative drug research and development through the innovative drug platform built inside GIBH.
In recent years, in order to promote the development of China's innovative drug racetrack and enable Chinese enterprises' drug research and development to meet the international standards, the country has introduced a series of incentive policies and simplified the approval process. In addition, with the vigorous development of drug research and development institutions (CRO, CDMO) such as WuXi AppTec, it has attracted a lot of professional talents in the field of drug research and development from WuXi. With years of experience, the two founders realized the opportunities in the innovative drug track at that time, and became Fuwo Pharmaceutical.
Today, Fuwo Pharmaceutical has already owned some preclinical drug discovery platforms and R&D centers, and has established a R&D team of more than 20 centers (the team is expected to expand to 50-60 centers next year). In addition, the company has also reached a cooperation with WuXi AppTec to carry out research on CMC, ChuYi, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and toxicology.
Product ⽅⾯, the pipeline of Volvo Pharmaceutical is dominated by tumor and ⾃⾝ immune diseases. It has the fourth generation targeted treatment drug FWD1509 for lung cancer, the third generation oral specific estrogen receptor degrading agent FWD1802 for breast cancer, and the monoclonal antibody drug FWB1313 for severe asthma and atopic inflammation. Among them, FWD1509, a targeted drug for lung cancer, is the main product of Volvo Pharmaceutical. The target of FWD1509 is EGFR, an epileptogenic receptor. The target is often mature. However, the class FWD1509 targeted by the drug is not subject to the 20th exoleptogenic mutation that meets the clinical needs. There is no target drug approved in China and the United States before FWD1509, so the market potential is considerable.
From the perspective of product layout strategy, in addition to focusing on the clinical demand side, Volvo Pharmaceutical will also choose mature pipelines and targets in the layout of products in the innovative drug market with a high failure rate. As for this point, Zhu Chenggang, co founder and CSO of Volvo Pharmaceutical, said that the failure rate of the first in class (i.e., the first in class) drugs could reach 80-90%. Therefore, as a start-up, Volvo Pharmaceutical will try to choose mature targets when selecting products at this stage. On the premise of selecting mature targets, we will deeply explore some indications that are not full of clinical symptoms to achieve a breakthrough in product differentiation. In addition, the Company has not made profits until now. However, from the perspective of the profit model, the company can make profits through the external authorization of intellectual property rights and the future listing of products and the realization of terminal sales.
Nowadays, internationalization has become a trend. For China's pharmaceutical industry, it has also gone through the process from the world's largest supplier of bulk drugs, to the successful listing of generic drugs in overseas markets, to the "zero breakthrough" of innovative drugs in the international market. More and more Chinese innovative pharmaceutical enterprises have extended their exposure to overseas markets. As the United States, which accounts for one-third of the global medical market, has become the first place for many enterprises to go abroad, and Volvo Pharmaceutical is no exception.
As for the international layout of Volvo Pharmaceutical, according to Zhu Bo, all innovative drug management lines of Volvo Pharmaceutical are making a global layout. In the process of product launch, the company has launched clinical trials of targeted drugs for lung cancer of human lung cancer in China and the United States simultaneously, with a view to obtaining the independent approval and listing of innovative drug products in China and the United States in the future. In addition, the company has made a layout in the main intellectual property protection, has applied for a number of PCT patents before, and will be launched in the United States, Europe, South Korea, Australia and other major pharmaceutical markets in succession.
When it comes to the future, the founders, domestic and all nuclear pipelines under Fuwo Pharmaceutical will continue to focus on research and development and clinical promotion. ⽽ Overseas business ⽅⾯⽋, the company will take the lead in clinical promotion, and will choose to transfer commercial rights or cooperate in development in the subsequent stage. In addition, Volvo Pharmaceutical is also preparing for listing.
Wen | Deng Yunxi
Editor | Zhao Xiaochun
Figure | Drawing provided by Volvo Pharmaceutical
