Exclusive Interview with Kasa Peptide: Opportunities in the Upstream Segment of the Booming Peptide Therapeutics Industry

Peptide-based therapeutics have a development history spanning over a century. Yet this time-honored field continues to revitalize itself, maintaining close relevance to human life and health. Blockbuster drugs in this domain—such as insulin, growth hormone, semaglutide, glatiramer, liraglutide, and albiglutide—are widely recognized by the general public.

Nowadays, peptide-based drugs cover a wide range of indications, including diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, chronic pain management, endocrine disorders, multiple sclerosis, anti-infective therapies, and irritable bowel syndrome. According to QYResearch statistics, the global market size for peptide drugs was approximately $15.2 billion in 2010 and reached $28.5 billion by 2018, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.17%. It is estimated that the growth rate of the peptide drug market is about twice that of the overall global pharmaceutical market. The market size for peptide drugs is projected to reach $49.5 billion by 2027.

The booming sector has naturally attracted numerous renowned pharmaceutical companies, both domestic and international, to establish their presence.Multinational giants such as Novo Nordisk, Novartis, AZ, Eli Lilly, Takeda, Amgen, and Teva, along with high-quality domestic enterprises including China Peptides Co., Ltd., Sinopep, Hybio Pharmaceutical, Hengrui Medicine, Hansoh Pharmaceutical, Innovent Biologics, Huadong Medicine, Tongyi Medicine, Medcoat, Shuangcheng Pharmaceutical, and PegBio, have all established a presence in this field.

The continuous influx of pharmaceutical companies has subsequently spurred the emergence of upstream service providers in the industry chain, including peptide active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturers, contract research organizations (CROs), and contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs).Currently, China is home not only to listed companies such as WuXi AppTec, Asymchem, Nuotai Biology, and Sunshine Noah,A separate cohort of startups is also accelerating their entry into and development of the peptide industry, with Hefei KS-V Peptide Biological Technology Co., Ltd. being one of them.

KS-V Peptide, established in January 2018, was founded by a team comprising distinguished scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China, Tsinghua University, and Columbia University specializing in protein and peptide research, as well as an experienced management and innovation team with extensive expertise in the pharmaceutical industry’s commercialization. The company is an innovative R&D platform dedicated to the discovery and screening of peptide-centric life molecules, their synthesis and preparation, scaffold optimization, and targeted delivery.

Unlike most companies independently founded by scientists and investment institutions,KS-V Peptide has a strong academic background.The company originated from the Engineering Technology Center for Protein and Peptide Drug Applications at the Advanced Technology Research Institute of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), and was established by the USTC Advanced Technology Research Institute, the project team, and Gaoxin Group.Jointly initiated and established by three parties, it is the first major achievement transformation project of the Advanced Technology Research Institute of the University of Science and Technology of China.

Zhou Li, Co-founder, Director, and General Manager of KS-V Peptide, joked, “When it comes to entrepreneurship, I feel like I was ‘forced up Mount Liang.’”

“Although the other two scientist co-founders gave Zhou Li complete trust and authority at the time, it was still highly challenging for researchers to personally establish a company. In the early stages of the startup, Zhou Li not only had to fulfill her duties as CEO, but also personally manage and take responsibility for matters such as building the initial team, operational management, business liaison, technological roadmap, and product manufacturing. ‘However, this also provided me with opportunities and challenges that I could not have gained anywhere else.’”

Zhou Li told VCBeat New Medicine that another co-founder of the company is also an alumnus of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), whose laboratory was located not far from hers at the time. “As a result, our two laboratories have maintained close collaboration since 2011, frequently applying jointly for research projects and publishing papers together. Thanks to this well-established synergy over many years, we began jointly undertaking projects for international pharmaceutical companies in 2015, and Hefei KS-V Peptide Biological Technology Co., Ltd. gradually took shape within the academic and laboratory setting.”

Thus, KS-V Peptide “crossed the river by feeling the stones” to become the first enterprise at the Advanced Technology Research Institute of the University of Science and Technology of China to use intangible assets as equity contributions.Received comprehensive support from the University of Science and Technology of China and the Hefei High-Tech Industrial Development Zone in areas such as funding and assets, upstream and downstream industrial chain resources, and talent reserves.

“Relying on universities, we do not need to spend extra time seeking and laying out many ‘0’ to ‘1’ source innovations, because we already have a steady stream of related achievements.”KS-V Peptide can devote more energy to industrial transformation from '1' to infinity,“Driving the advancement of the peptide industry,” Zhou Li told VCBeat New Medicine.

To date, KS-V Peptide has assembled an international R&D and production team specializing in the peptide field. With the tripartite support of its founding team, academic institutions, and the government, KS-V Peptide has achieved a series of innovations centered on “peptides” by leveraging interdisciplinary integration and technological advancements in protein chemistry, peptide chemistry, biochemistry, bioinformatics, and other life sciences.

Led by its team and leveraging a 7,000-square-meter R&D facility at its headquarters in the Hefei High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, as well as business development centers established in Shanghai and the United States, Hefei KS-V Peptide Biological Technology Co., Ltd. currently provides global research institutions, biotechnology firms, and pharmaceutical companies with innovative, one-stop, customizable solutions centered on peptides. These services include novel drug molecule and targeted molecule discovery and screening, peptide and protein synthesis, scaffold structure optimization, functional validation, and pilot-scale production.

Currently, KS-V Peptide has established a core peptide seed library centered on peptides, including DNA-encoded and combinatorial chemistry peptide libraries, as well as phage-displayed bicyclic peptide libraries. The company has built core technology platforms covering gene-to-target protein construction and preparation, peptide chemical synthesis and modification optimization, total protein synthesis, in vitro functional screening (particularly for membrane protein targets), structural elucidation, pharmacology and efficacy evaluation, and pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism. These capabilities enable efficient discovery, screening, optimization, targeted delivery, and validation of innovative peptide drugs.

Leveraging its technology platform in the field of life science tools, Hefei KS-V Peptide Biological Technology Co., Ltd. currently offers specific products including toxin peptides, ubiquitin, modified histones, and isotope-labeled peptides.Custom synthesis of various peptides;Side-chain modification, cyclic peptides, stapled peptides, non-natural amino acid incorporation, site-specific modification, etc.Multiple Drug Peptide Modifications;High-throughput screening of deubiquitinase inhibitors, assay kits for evaluating deubiquitinase activity and specificity, and screening reagents and strategies for small-molecule lead compoundsOne-Stop Drug Screening;as well as nucleosome assembly, synthetic process routes, modification plans/strategies, and other variousBiotechnology Services.

In the field of early-stage drug discovery in pharmaceutical R&D,Particularly addressing industry pain points such as first-in-class (FIC) drug discovery and best-in-class (BIC) molecule optimization in the early stages of peptide development, as well as process development for the synthesis of structurally and functionally complex peptide molecules in later stages., KS-V Peptide has also focused on building a core technology platform for innovative peptide discoveryKPDS™(KS-V Peptide Discovery Services Platform)。

The platform encompasses drug screening and scaffold optimization of cyclic peptide libraries based on phage display technology, as well as the construction and screening of DNA-encoded peptide libraries, with a particular focus on screening against membrane protein targets. It enables the chemical synthesis of the world’s longest peptides and employs long-acting, site-specific modification technologies to enhance stability. Furthermore, it features modular CP-LNP technology for the targeted cellular delivery of cyclic peptides, which will significantly accelerate the innovative R&D of therapeutic peptides and foster the robust growth of peptide-targeted therapies.

Leveraging these technological platforms, Hefei KS-V Peptide has successfully established a globally leading innovative peptide drug discovery platform featuring a peptide biobank and DNA-encoded library (DEL), a total chemical synthesis platform for structurally complex natural and modified peptides, as well as the only NMR-based peptide structure confirmation platform in China. Therefore,In the field of peptide chemical synthesis, KS-V Peptide possesses multiple difficult-to-synthesize peptide technologies that are unique in China and internationally leading.Record-breaking synthetic technologies, including the total chemical synthesis of long-chain polypeptides exceeding 400 amino acids, the total chemical synthesis of membrane proteins exceeding 130 amino acids (hydrophobic peptide solubilization technology), and the total chemical synthesis of polypeptides containing more than four disulfide bonds with physiological functions.

Zhou Li told VCBeat New Medicine, “KS-V Peptide’s business is strategically focused on addressing the pain points of the peptide industry, thereby creating differentiated competitive advantages for the company.”Particularly in the discovery and synthesis of cyclic peptide molecules, we currently offer monocyclic and bicyclic peptide libraries, and our synthesis capabilities extend to the preparation of bicyclic, tricyclic, and even tetracyclic peptide molecules.”

Currently, the project team of KS-V Peptide has established strong collaborative relationships with universities and research institutes such as Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Zhejiang University, the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as with leading domestic and international biopharmaceutical companies including Hansoh Pharmaceutical, Hengrui Medicine, Yangtze River Pharmaceutical Group, Nuotai Biology, and Frontier Biotechnologies. Leveraging KS-V Peptide’s core proprietary technology for peptide-based drug discovery,The team has successfully facilitated FDA applications for over 10 projects, among which the most advanced innovative drug project has currently entered Phase II clinical trials.

Regarding the future development of KS-V Peptide, Zhou Li stated, “The name ‘KS-V Peptide’ carries a straightforward literal meaning. ‘K’ stands for ‘science,’ referencing both the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and the scientific nature of our work. ‘Sheng’ indicates our origins in the School of Life Sciences at USTC, with our business primarily focused on the life sciences sector. ‘Jing’ is derived from the Jing Men (Scenery Gate) in the Bagua diagram, symbolizing a time when the sun is at its zenith, shining brightly—a sign of flourishing growth and prosperity for all things. ‘Peptide’ reflects our unwavering commitment to peptide-centric technological strategies and business development. Looking ahead, we will remain rooted in China, striving to realize the infinite potential for industrial innovation—from ‘1’ to ‘N’—in the peptide field and to establish a global business footprint.”

To address the rapid expansion of the company's industrial scale and the swift increase in commercial orders,Hefei KS-V Peptide Biological Technology Co., Ltd. is currently conducting its first round of market-oriented financing.We look forward to KS-V Peptide becoming a global leader in peptide-based drug discovery and technological innovation services at an early date.