Shixi Biotech and BeiGene Bio-Island Innovation Center Forge Strategic Partnership to Advance RNA Therapeutics

On April 15, 2024, RECORNA (Guangzhou) Biotechnology Co., Ltd. ("RECORNA") and BeiGene BioIsland Innovation Center ("BeiGene Innovation Center") announced a deep collaboration during the strategic signing ceremony "Innovation-Driven, Jointly Planning Development" to co-create a strategic cooperation center for nucleic acid innovative therapies, committed to the research and innovation of new nucleic acid drugs.

It is reported that the BeiGene Innovation Center has decided to partner with RecoRNA, becoming one of its key collaborators. This collaboration will provide RecoRNA with comprehensive support and offer professional guidance and empowerment in drug target selection and indication exploration, marking an important step forward for both parties in the research and innovation of novel nucleic acid drugs.

Dr. Liu Jian, CEO of BeiGene Innovation Center, reviewed the process of getting to know the founder team of RecoRNA. He stated that the reason for the active support from BeiGene Innovation Center to this start-up biotechnology company is twofold: first, its team has a solid foundation in RNA editing theory and practice, and second, it possesses extensive experience in corporate operations.

 Dr. Jian Liu, CEO of BeiGene Innovation Center

Dr. Liu Jian stated, "The BeiGene Innovation Center has always aimed to support innovative companies and share our experiences." Two years ago, after Dr. Liu Jian connected with this team, he actively promoted collaboration. The BeiGene Innovation Center is dedicated to empowering talented, young scientists and entrepreneurs. Its mission is to meet the technical, experimental, and mentoring needs of startups by providing various supporting facilities and services.

He also stated that the BeiGene Innovation Center will provide full industry value chain support to empower RecoRNA, and looks forward to further cooperation in the future. "We hope that through this collaboration, we can offer comprehensive support to RecoRNA. We believe that RecoRNA will become a shining star in its future development."

Professor Dongming Kuang, Vice Dean of the School of Life Sciences at Sun Yat-sen University, stated in his speech that in recent years, all of the top ten scientific and technological advances selected by the American magazine Science have focused on life sciences, highlighting its core position in the development of modern technology.

 Professor Dongming Kuang, Vice Dean of the School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University

Professor Kuang Dongming said that the development of life sciences is of great significance to the future of the country. In the "14th Five-Year Plan for Bioeconomy Development" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2022, the development priorities in four areas—biomedicine, bio-agriculture, bio-resources, and bioinformatics—were clearly outlined. The School of Life Sciences at Sun Yat-sen University has consistently been at the forefront of research in evolutionary and synthetic biology in China.

The RNA editing drugs developed by RecoRNA, as a key translational application focus of the academy led by Professor Zhang Rui, will become an important example of technological research transformation at Sun Yat-sen University's School of Life Sciences. With the support of BeiGene Innovation Center’s mature management team and incubation platform, RecoRNA is expected to leverage its strengths and achieve greater success.

Shao Jingbo, Deputy Director of the Guangzhou Development Zone Management Committee, stated in his speech that BeiGene, as a global innovator in oncology drugs, has established a large-molecule production base in the Guangzhou Development Zone since its relocation there in 2017. Currently, the first and second phases of BeiGene's factories located in the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City were completed in September 2019 and December 2020, respectively, with a single-use bioreactor capacity of 24,000 liters. In addition, the Guangzhou base added a newly built capacity of 10,000 liters in 2023, raising the total capacity to 64,000 liters (as of December 31, 2023). More excitingly, the ADC commercial production base was also successfully completed recently. After several years of rapid development, BeiGene has not only become a leader among innovative pharmaceutical companies but also a benchmark on the global stage.

 Shao Jingbo, Deputy Director of the Guangzhou Development Zone Management Committee

Shao Jingbo said that, in order to further optimize the innovation ecosystem, BeiGene has established an innovation center on Guangzhou Bio Island. This is an important project personally organized by Dr. Liu Jian. Adhering to the design concept of empowering biotechnology companies with BeiGene's talent, R&D capabilities, and market efficiency advantages, it comprehensively empowers innovative companies from R&D, production to sales, injecting strong momentum into the biotech industry in the Greater Bay Area.

The RecoRNA, which has signed this cooperation agreement, is a representative in the field of nucleic acid new drug research and development and innovation, and also one of the dozen projects being incubated by BeiGene Innovation Center. In addition, as an outstanding representative of the Sun Yat-sen University team, RecoRNA's successful transformation of its achievements has received accelerated support from the BeiGene Innovation Center, highlighting the center’s vision of supporting small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve success.

Shao Jingbo said that Guangzhou Development Zone is the core area of Guangzhou's biomedicine industry. The annual total revenue of the district's biomedicine, health, and medical device industries exceeds 290 billion US dollars; it gathers more than 4,000 well-known biomedicine and device companies from China and abroad. There are 209 R&D institutions at or above the provincial level, of which 12 are national-level; it has attracted 25 academician workstations, including those of Zhong Nanshan, Xu Tao, Song Erwei, Xie Xiaoliang, Wang Xiaodong, and Shi Yigong. In 2023, 100 clinical trial approvals for drugs were granted, accounting for approximately 93% of Guangzhou City.

Shao Jingbo also provided a detailed introduction to Bio Island. Bio Island is the life science cooperation zone in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, dedicated to building a world-class biomedicine research and development center. Since its opening in 2011, more than 300 companies have settled on the island, including AstraZeneca's Southern Headquarters, KingMed Diagnostics, Danaher's Greater Bay Area Headquarters, and others. The island also hosts life science research institutions such as Academician Zhong's Guangzhou National Laboratory and strategic platforms like the South China New Drug Rapid Clearance Platform. The Guangzhou Development Zone is fully committed to creating a policy pilot area branded as "Guangzhou International Bio Island," working together to build a global highland for biomedicine innovation and industrial development.

He mentioned that recently, Wang Xiaodong, academician, co-founder of BeiGene, and chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee, stated at the completion ceremony of the ADC Building at BeiGene's Guangzhou production base that BeiGene’s development is like a marathon runner, persistently moving toward the finish line. "We sincerely wish BeiGene to truly realize the spirit of 'innovating hundreds of drugs to benefit the world,' and continue to lead the innovative development of the biopharmaceutical health industry," said Shao Jingbo.

 Pictured (from the back row, left to right) are Wei Guoxing, Xin Rong, Chen Chao, Liu Jian, Shao Jingbo, Long Xiaoteng, Kuang Dongming, and Liu Chong; (from the front row, left to right) Liu Weimin and Zhang Rui, witnessing the strategic signing between BeiGene and RecoRNA.

Pictured are Chen Chao, Liu Weimin, Long Xiaoteng, Shao Jingbo, Liu Jian, Xin Rong, Zhang Rui, Liu Chong, Kuang Dongming, and Wei Guoxing witnessing the unveiling of the "Nucleic Acid Innovation Therapy Strategic Cooperation Center" between BeiGene and RecoRNA.

Innovation and a global perspective will become the winning concepts driving future development. In this process, the active participation of industrial capital is particularly crucial. Long Xiaoteng, founding partner of Beijing Life Science Park Innovation Investment Fund and representative of investors, said in his speech that he had lost count of how many times he had set foot in the BeiGene Innovation Center, but the investment in RecoRNA by the Beijing Life Science Park Innovation Investment Fund was still fresh in his memory.

As early as May 2022, the fund made its first investment in RecoRNA. Encouragingly, RecoRNA has demonstrated excellent preclinical data, fully proving its innovative capabilities.

Long Xiaoteng, Founding Partner of Beijing Life Science Park Innovation Investment Fund

Nowadays, RecoRNA's new round of financing has once again attracted the attention of many investors and companies, including the strong support from BeiGene Innovation Center and the Guangzhou Municipal Government. This is not only an affirmation of RecoRNA's past efforts but also a recognition of its future potential. At the same time, it reflects the Beijing Life Science Park Innovation Investment Fund's commitment to providing scientists and entrepreneurs with services for the transformation of scientific achievements in source innovation.

More honorably, BeiGene's Changping Research and Development Center is also located in the Zhongguan Village Life Science Park, as a key enterprise incubated and nurtured by the park. Today, BeiGene has not only grown into a leading innovative pharmaceutical company but also established a professional team at its innovation center in Guangzhou to incubate companies with innovative capabilities like RecoRNA. Long Xiaoteng feels deeply gratified and immensely proud.

RecoRNA General Manager Ms. Rong Xin introduced the exploration of the development path for nucleic acid therapies under the new situation. RecoRNA's RNA editing platform focuses on precise single-point editing at the RNA level through small nucleotide drug approaches, offering flexible and reversible regulation of gene expression and function, enabling various types of RNA modulation. From a biotechnology perspective, RecoRNA’s RNA editing platform demonstrates safer and more diversified characteristics.

Finally, she expressed special thanks to the strong support from Guangzhou Development Zone and BeiGene Innovation Center. "Looking ahead, we look forward to establishing deeper cooperative relationships with the government, universities, industry, and investment communities to jointly promote the development of new drug research and development in the Greater Bay Area," said Xin Rong.

RecoRNA General Manager Ms. Rong Xin

 RECORNA Moves into BeiGene BioIsland Innovation Center Laboratory

RecoRNA Founder and Professor Zhang Rui from the School of Life Sciences at Sun Yat-sen University provided a detailed introduction to the advantages and application scenarios of RecoRNA's RNA editing technology based on endogenous ADAR proteins in an interview. He stated: "Compared with CRISPR technology, RNA editing technology based on endogenous ADAR proteins offers higher flexibility and safety, enabling the repair and optimization of protein sequences and functions without altering the genomic sequence. Additionally, RecoRNA adopts an RNA editing approach using small nucleotide drugs. Compared with other gene-editing therapies, this approach has the unique characteristic of reversible efficacy and adjustable dosage. Therefore, this RNA editing technology has broad application prospects in treating various common diseases caused by non-genetic mutations and indications requiring functional improvement, such as cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and anti-aging, while also demonstrating excellent safety."

Professor Zhang also revealed that RecoRNA has an independent intellectual property MIMIC RNA editing platform, which can repair and optimize the sequence and function of proteins without permanently modifying the genome.

RecoRNA Founder, Professor Rui Zhang from the School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University

Regarding the collaboration with BeiGene Innovation Center, Professor Zhang stated: "This partnership will bring more international resources to RecoRNA, including support in target discovery and clinical research, accelerating our R&D progress. We look forward to jointly developing more therapeutics with clinical value."

 Group Photo of All Attendees

The information in this press release is sourced from interviews with relevant individuals and meeting records, aiming to objectively report the collaboration progress between BeiGene Innovation Center and RecoRNA. Readers are advised to verify the technical details and R&D progress mentioned herein with related data and materials. Additionally, this press release does not constitute a recommendation for any investment activities.

RECORNA is a small nucleic acid drug research and development company that develops innovative drugs targeting health threats for which there are currently no effective conventional treatments, utilizing technology platforms such as RNA editing. It is committed to addressing unmet clinical needs including cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and anti-aging solutions. RECORNA has established an independent intellectual property RNA editing platform based on the technology transfer from Professor Rui Zhang's laboratory at Sun Yat-sen University's School of Life Sciences. This platform enables the repair and optimization of protein sequences and functions without permanently modifying the genome. The company, located in the BeiGene Innovation Center on Guangzhou Bio Island, has built an early-stage R&D platform comprising laboratory facilities for drug discovery, biological validation, and delivery system development.

BeiGene BioIsland Innovation Center (BIC) is a next-generation incubator centered on scientists/entrepreneurs, with a seasoned management team. By integrating external resources, it can support over 500 talented internal and external scientists and entrepreneurs in incubating highly differentiated innovations across pharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical diagnostics, and other fields, paving new ways for cutting-edge exploration and industry breakthroughs. The center offers: 1) One-stop scientific support and R&D services for a "move-in ready" experience to accelerate the R&D process for startups; 2) First-class venues and laboratory facilities, including shared offices and shared laboratories; 3) Early-stage investment and follow-up financing services, including early-stage investment guidance, various equity participation options, post-investment management consulting, and an extensive investor network.