Xinqi Biopharma Accelerates USP1 Inhibitor Program with Multi-Omics-Driven Development Strategy Supported by PuraCure

"The Synthetic Lethality Strategy" is a highly regarded direction in recent years for the development of new cancer drugs. By exploiting the weaknesses of tumor cells, targeting synthetic lethal targets induces tumor cell death while protecting normal cells from harm. Currently, the most successful synthetic lethal target is PARP. PARP inhibitors, as drugs targeting the DNA damage repair (DDR) pathway, have been proven to bring clear clinical benefits to cancer patients with BRCA1/2 mutations or homologous recombination deficiency (HRD).

With the launch of multiple PARP inhibitors, certain types of cancer (such as advanced ovarian cancer and prostate cancer) have entered an era of comprehensive application of PARP inhibitors. However, not all patients respond to PARP inhibitors, and those who initially respond gradually develop resistance, leaving these patients in a situation where "no available treatment options" remain.

The USP1 inhibitor DX-003, developed by Xinqi Biotech, may bring a turning point. USP1 (ubiquitin-specific peptidase 1), as another synthetic lethal target, mediates a DNA repair pathway that is different from but complementary to PARP, playing a crucial role in the DNA damage repair pathway. Therefore, the USP1 inhibitor can be used alone for patients who do not respond or are resistant to PARP inhibitors, or it can be combined with PARP inhibitors to enhance efficacy and avoid drug resistance, making it the "perfect partner" for PARP inhibitors.

With a deep understanding of the USP1 target, NeoQuant Bio proactively identified it as a promising candidate to become another rising star in the synthetic lethality field following PARP. As a result, the company initiated the USP1 project at an early stage. Meanwhile, NeoQuant Bio has been closely collaborating with Precision Scientific, leveraging their unique multi-omics data mining system AIBERT to further enhance the understanding of USP1 and optimize development strategies.

New契 Biotech's candidate compound DX-003 is a highly active, structurally novel oral small molecule USP1 inhibitor, showing potential efficacy in tumor lineages with HRD mutations. Data from in vivo and in vitro models demonstrate that DX-003 significantly inhibits the growth of tumors carrying BRCA mutations or HRD, whether used as a monotherapy or in combination with the PARP inhibitor olaparib. These data give New契 Biotech confidence to rapidly advance DX-003 into clinical trials, and the company has already initiated IND-enabling preclinical studies. During the subsequent development of this product, Precision Scientific will continuously perform iterative analyses based on the data provided by New契 Biotech, supporting New契 Biotech in optimizing decision-making regarding indication selection, biomarker discovery, and combination therapy exploration, ensuring high efficiency and a high success rate for the project.

Dr. Nanxin Li, founder and CEO of New Phase Biotech, said:

"Based on the synthetic lethal mechanism of USP1, New Active Biotech's USP1 inhibitor can serve as both a 'backup force' for PARP inhibitors to treat patients who do not respond or are resistant to PARP inhibitors, and a 'good partner' to enhance treatment efficacy. At the clinical stage, our collaboration with Precision Scientific will help us identify more precise biomarkers and develop more effective dosing strategies, further improving clinical response rates and expanding clinical indications while accelerating the drug’s path to market."

Dr. Ji Xuwo, founder and CEO of Precision Scientific, stated:

"We are very pleased to see that our multi-omics data mining system, AIBERT, can help SynKary Bio rapidly deepen the understanding of USP1 and support SynKary in formulating the development strategy for USP1 inhibitors. SynKary Bio is an outstanding new drug R&D company with profound experience in biological understanding and drug molecular design. This collaboration once again demonstrates that multi-omics data mining, as a powerful translational medicine R&D tool, can play a unique role in new drug development."

Precision Scientific's capabilities in multi-omics data mining have been validated in multiple practical new drug development projects, providing support for the R&D decision-making of several partner pharmaceutical companies. This includes the validation of new targets (without clinical trial data) and the determination of differentiated development strategies. We will continue to leverage the multi-omics data mining platform to empower innovative drug development and facilitate the R&D upgrades of our pharmaceutical partners.

New Phase Biotech was co-founded by Dr. Nanxin Li (discoverer of Ceritinib) and Dr. Zhaoyin Wang (designer of "Vioxx"). Dr. Zhaoyin Wang formerly served as the head of new drug research at Merck Canada.Director of the Development Center, led and participated in the development of several successful small molecule drugs that have been launched on the market (Arcoxia, Vioxx, Tredaptive) at Merck. Dr. Li Nanxin formerly served at Novartis.Technical Director and Deputy Director of the Cancer Center at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF)The Highest R&D Award - The President's Award. During his tenure at Novartis, Dr. Li led the development of two marketed drugs, Ceritinib and Encorafenib. In particular, he presided over and participated in the entire process of developing Ceritinib.Precision Scientific has been engaged in the development of Retini from early target validation, compound screening, translational medicine research, to the final clinical R&D work. The company is a leader in the development of USP1 inhibitors, with a pipeline that includes multiple innovative compounds. For example, an EP2/EP4 dual antagonist that is safer and more effective than "Vioxx" is currently in the IND-enabling stage and is expected to enter the dual IND filing stage in China and the U.S. next year, offering a promising new and safe immunotherapy option for cancer patients. The company aims to continuously produce First-in-class small molecule drugs by leveraging its portfolio of differentiated products.VCBeat once interviewed New契 Biotech, click here to read the article.）

Precision Scientific is an innovative translational medicine company that provides research and development support to pharmaceutical companies based on the integration and mining of multi-omics data. This includes aiding in decision-making for innovative drug development, such as helping formulate differentiated clinical development strategies for drugs under research. The company's massive multi-omics data mining platform, AIBERT, is unique in China. It integrates biological data, including multi-omics data, and clinical information. Through the analysis of these vast, high-dimensional, heterogeneous data, it can provide unique decision-making support to pharmaceutical companies in areas such as new target assessment, indication selection, discovery of innovative biomarkers, research on resistance mechanisms, and exploration of combination therapy approaches. The company has already collaborated with multiple leading pharmaceutical companies both domestically and internationally, achieving several positive outcomes and gaining high recognition from its pharmaceutical partners. The company also possesses a central laboratory that meets international standards, capable of providing "experiment + computation" one-stop translational medicine services to innovative pharmaceutical enterprises.