METiS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Files Prospectus for Hong Kong IPO: Pioneering AI-Driven Drug Delivery Platform with Best-in-Class Liver-Targeting DDS and Multiple Clinical-Stage Pipelines

In recent years, RNA therapy has become extremely popular in the global innovative biopharmaceuticals market. According to the latest forecast by Nova One Advisor, the combined market size of just CGT and mRNA therapies is expected to soar to $156.2 billion by 2033. Among this, the market scale of drug delivery systems (DDS), which are closely related to therapeutic efficacy, will inevitably rise as well. Since RNA-based therapies require the delivery of therapeutic RNA into target cells to take effect, the hydrophilicity, negative charge, and molecular size of nucleic acids may prevent them from penetrating cell membranes. Therefore, a safe and effective drug delivery system will be a crucial key to the success of CGT and mRNA treatments.

Currently, many pharmaceutical companies focusing on innovative therapies are committed to developing their own unique and efficient Drug Delivery Systems (DDS). Among them, METiS TechBio (METiS Pharmaceuticals), which was incubated early on by XtalPi (QuantumPharm, 2228.HK), has developed an innovative DDS that achieves best-in-class global performance in liver targeting, with delivery efficiency surpassing industry giants by more than 20 times.

On June 21, 2024, METiS TechBio, an innovative biotechnology company focusing on "AI + drug delivery," announced the completion of its $100 million Series C financing round. This round was led by a fund under CICC Capital, with participation from Taiping Hong Kong Insurance Technology Innovation Fund under China Taiping. Including previous investments from top institutions such as Sequoia China, China Life Equity, PICC Equity, 5Y Capital, Frees Fund, Source Code Capital, Lightspeed Lightbank, and Lattice Capital, METiS TechBio has raised nearly $300 million in total.

Based on the current round of financing estimates, METiS TechBio, which was incubated through early investment by XtalPi, now has a market value approaching 1 billion US dollars. As its R&D pipeline continues to expand, innovative drugs successively receive IND approval, and steadily advance into the commercial NDA stage, the market value is expected to double. XtalPi could also realize a hundredfold profit as a result. This further demonstrates that XtalPi’s innovative integrated R&D platform combining quantum physics, AI artificial intelligence, and robotics not only assists clients in developing innovative drugs or new materials but also has the potential to incubate AI-driven pharmaceutical unicorns with significant growth value.

METiS TechBio was founded in 2020 by Dr. Hongmin Chen, a member of the National Academy of Engineering in the United States, along with Dr. Caida Lai and Dr. Wenshou Wang, both top scientists from MIT. The company leverages artificial intelligence to drive precise targeted drug delivery and drug discovery, focusing on the development of innovative nanomaterials and creating more effective therapeutic drugs for patients. It has now become one of the world's leading drug delivery platforms. The funds raised in this round of financing mentioned above will mainly be used to further advance the construction of the AI + drug delivery platform and the development of its self-owned pipeline, supporting METiS TechBio’s continuous innovation in the field of drug delivery.

In the development of CGT and mRNA drugs, "drug delivery" technology is the "bottleneck" step to ensure their smooth entry into cells for expression, involving key issues such as targeting tissues and organs, efficient intracellular delivery, and endosomal escape. Figuratively speaking, this delivery process is like a rocket precisely launching a satellite into a specific orbit, enabling the satellite to function properly.

As a leader in the "AI + drug delivery" field, METiS TechBio, in the absence of open-source datasets and delivery-related algorithms, started from scratch to innovatively develop groundbreaking artificial intelligence and computational simulation algorithms for the generation and design of ionizable lipids and the design and simulation of LNP nanomaterials. Combined with world-leading high-throughput experimental techniques and animal validation platforms, METiS TechBio has built its own data and algorithmic barriers.

Currently, METiS TechBio has independently developed three major AI+ core technology platforms: AI-driven lipid nanoparticle delivery system design platform (AiLNP), AI-driven mRNA sequence design platform (AiRNA), and AI-driven small molecule formulation design platform (AiTEM). It has also established a proprietary technical route for METiS TechBio that deeply integrates dry and wet lab experiments, thereby achieving efficient drug delivery and drug discovery.

Based on the AI drug delivery platform and integrating the rapidly advancing large models and generative AI technologies, METiS TechBio has established the world's first METiSLipidLM lipid language model and PhatGPT lipid generation model, creating a million-level lipid library and successfully breaking through international patent barriers. Meanwhile, METiS TechBio combines innovative molecular simulation technology to simulate various microscopic processes of LNPs in vivo and in vitro, and relies on a world-class experimental validation platform to empower the development of multi-organ targeted nanomaterials, achieving the successful implementation of AI + nanomaterial applications.

As mentioned earlier, in the field of liver targeting, METiS TechBio's DDS has achieved best-in-class globally, with delivery efficiency surpassing industry giants by more than 20 times. In areas such as lung targeting, compared to top overseas pharmaceutical companies, it also achieves an order-of-magnitude improvement in efficacy. Additionally, METiS TechBio has pioneered targeted delivery technologies for systemic muscles, the brain, immune organs, and tumors, successfully leading the world in overcoming the "bottleneck" challenge of multi-organ and tissue targeting, bringing opportunities for the development of nucleic acid gene drugs in fields such as cancer, metabolic diseases, autoimmune diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Relying on its self-developed technology platform, METiS TechBio has also established several R&D pipelines, covering small molecule drugs and nucleic acid drugs mainly based on mRNA, focusing on indications with significant clinical needs in China and globally, such as cancer, central nervous system diseases, and liver diseases.

The small molecule pipeline, which is currently the most advanced, has successfully entered phase III clinical trials in June 2023. The mRNA immunotherapy pipeline is also expected to enter clinical trials this year. This signifies that the company has completed the rapid transformation and upgrade from a technology platform to a product platform, validating the R&D capabilities of METiS TechBio's AI-driven drug delivery platform.

With the completion of Series C financing, METiS TechBio will further accelerate the development and commercialization process of its R&D pipeline, continuously enhancing the company's competitiveness in the field of AI-driven drug discovery.