GENE ONLINE|News &
Weekly in Asia 2019｜JULY
H. Spectrum and Merck to Launch Innovation Lab in Taipei.
YongLin Health Foundation, which focuses on cultivating Taiwan’s biomedical talents and leading brands, and Merck, the world’s leading science and technology company, on June 28 announced the establishment of H. Spectrum & Merck Innovation Lab in Taiwan. Through the lab, Merck and H. Spectrum will focus on collaborations in four areas, including precision medicine, liquid biopsy, biosensors and interface, as well as patient management. Michael Gamber, Head of the Merck Innovation Center, said: “Merck is committed to working with startups and companies around the world to drive innovation outside of the existing business. The H. Spectrum & Merck Innovation Lab is expected to bring more solutions to improve patient’s life.”
The teams selected for this year’s H. Spectrum & Merck Innovation Lab incubator program include Helios Bioelectronics Inc., Instant NanoBiosensors Co., Ltd, Molsentech, and VSense. The four teams will go to the Slush, a not-for-profit startup and tech event to be held in Helsinki, and MEDICA, the world’s largest International trade fair for the medical sector, in Dusseldorf, Germany in the second half of the year, as well as having the opportunity to participate in the accelerator training program at Merck headquarters.
About H. Spectrum
H. Spectrum, a Taiwan-based healthcare fund backed by Foxconn, is a startup incubator & accelerator focusing on the healthcare sector. Its vision is to boost the entrepreneur community in Asia by integrating clinical, R&D, patent, marketing and other factors required for entrepreneurship, and to form a cross-disciplinary team and bridge the resources as needed by startup teams.
About Merck Innovation Center
Located in Darmstadt, Germany, the Merck Innovation Center was launched to assist and develop innovation beyond the company’s current business. Through its accelerator program, the Merck Innovation Center has established a strong partnership with the world’s new biotechnology startup ecosystem.
China NMPA Grants Priority Review to BeiGene’s Supplemental New Drug Application for Tislelizumab in Urothelial Carcinoma
BeiGene is undergoing the development of tislelizumab as a monotherapy and in combination with other therapies for the treatment of both solid and hematologic cancers.
In August 2018, Tislelizumab, an investigational Fc-engineered anti-PD1 antibody co-developed by BeiGene and Celgene, was accepted by the China NMPA (National Medical Products Administration) as a potential treatment for patients with relapsed / refractory (R/R) classic Hodgkin’s lymphoma (cHL). In November 2018, its priority review status was granted. In May 2019, the sNDA (supplemental new drug application) for tislelizumab as a potential treatment for patients with previously treated locally-advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma was accepted.
On July 7th, BeiGene announced that the China NMPA has granted priority review status to the sNDA for tislelizumab, for patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma.
About BeiGene
BeiGene is a global, commercial-stage, research-based biotechnology company focused on molecularly-targeted and immuno-oncology cancer therapeutics. With over 2,200 employees in China, the United States, Australia and Europe, BeiGene is advancing a pipeline consisting of novel oral small molecules and monoclonal antibodies for cancer.
Yuhan Corporation licenses out NASH R&D pipeline to Boehringer Ingelheim for USD 870million
On July 1st, Korean pharma company Yuhan Corporation licensed out its nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) pipeline to global biopharma firm Boehringer Ingelheim for USD 870 million. The two companies aim to develop first-in-class dual agonist for NASH and related liver diseases that combines GLP-1 and FGF21 activity in one molecule, utilizing the long-acting recombinant technology, hyFc® of Genexine. This collaboration is expected to bring innovative medicines to patients with cardiometabolic diseases.
Under the terms of the agreement, Yuhan will receive upfront and near-term payments of USD 40 million and is eligible to receive up to USD 830 million in potential milestone payments plus tiered royalties on future net sales. Genexine, in turn, receives 5 percent of the out-licensing deal in royalties.
About Yuhan Corporation
Yuhan Corporation operates as a pharmaceutical company in South Korea and internationally. The company engages in the research and development, and production of active pharmaceutical products and intermediates.
About Boehringer Ingelheim
Boehringer Ingelheim researches, develops, and manufactures pharmaceutical products. The Company offers prescription medicines, consumer health care products, biopharmaceuticals, pharma and chemical production, and veterinary medicines worldwide.
About Genexine
Genexine, Inc., founded in 1999 and based in Seongnam, South Korea,
is a clinical stage biotechnology company focusing on the development and commercialization of immunotherapeutics and long-acting biologics.
PREMIA and AmoyDx Partners to Establish Asia Cancer Clinical Genomic Network for Loxo’s LOXO-292
Loxo Oncology, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company that develops targeted cancer drugs, has entered into a strategic partnership agreement with Amoy Diagnostics and PREMIA Holdings. Under the agreement, AmoyDx and PREMIA will provide large-scale cancer patient screening in China, Taiwan and Japan to support the ongoing clinical development of LOXO-292, Loxo Oncology’s RET (rearranged during transfection) kinase inhibitor which applies AmoyDx’s proprietary multi-gene polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and next generation sequencing (NGS) panels to identify patients with this rare genetic alteration.
About Loxo Oncology
Loxo Oncology, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company, is a biopharmaceutical company innovating the development of highly selective medicines for patients with genetically defined cancers. Its pipeline focuses on cancers that are uniquely dependent on single gene abnormalities.
About Amoy Diagnostics
Amoy Diagnostics Co., Ltd. is a leading biotech company which pioneers the development and commercialization of cancer diagnostics in China. It is the largest provider of molecular diagnostics products for personalized healthcare in China, as well as a service center for oncology biomarker analysis.
About PREMIA Holdings
Established in 2018, PREMIA accelerates novel cancer therapeutics by providing an efficient clinical development platform in Asia. It also serves as the international business development partner for Japan’s LC-SCRUM, a genomic screening project conducted by the National Cancer Center Japan in cooperation with medical institutions and pharmaceutical manufacturers across the country.
Integrated DNA Technologies, ChosenMed to Enhance Cancer Diagnosis in China
ChosenMed Technology, a Chinese medical sequencing company, has formed a strategic cooperation with US’s Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) to develop pan-cancer diagnostic panels as part of the Cancer Genome Atlas of China (CGAC) project.
Under the strategic collaboration, IDT will provide its next-generation sequencing enrichment products for cancer sequencing to ChosenMed and help to develop future standards of NGS-based cancer diagnosis, personalized medicine and transformative healthcare in China.
About Integrated DNA Technologies
Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc. (IDT) is a bio-technology company. that offers analytics, custom tube labeling, disease detection, and packaging and formulation services. IDT also provides purification products, genotyping, gene silencing, synthetic genes, and research services.
About ChosenMed Technology
ChosenMed is a provider of oncology products and services, covering precision medicine solutions including early tumor screening, prevention and diagnosis, dynamic monitoring, medication guidance, prognostic evaluation, and bioinformatics big data analysis.
References
https://www.merckgroup.com/tw-zh/news/hmil-opening-taipei-2019-06-28.html
http://ir.beigene.com/news-releases/news-release-details/priority-review-granted-beigenes-supplemental-new-drug
https://www.boehringer-ingelheim.us/press-release/boehringer-ingelheim-expands-nonalcoholic-steatohepatitis-nash-rd-pipeline-new-first
https://nai500.com/blog/2019/06/eli-lilly-unit-selects-chinas-amoy-diagnostics-gene-products-for-cancer-drug/
https://www.genomeweb.com/business-news/integrated-dna-technologies-chosenmed-technology-develop-gene-panels-chinese-cancer#.XRsbT5MzZ8c
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