ICE Bioscience Reports 150% YoY Order Growth and Files IPO Prospectus: Differentiating Target-Driven Drug Discovery CRO Services

Following GPCRs (G protein-coupled receptors),Membrane Protein Ion Channels (Ion Channel) Are Considered the Second Largest Class of Drug Targets. As a broad class of protein complexes, ion channels facilitate and regulate the exchange of various ions between the intracellular space and the extracellular milieu, thereby maintaining normal cellular physiological functions. Dysfunctional ion channels are associated with a wide range of diseases, including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, schizophrenia, diabetes, and cancer.

Although ion channels have long been a focal point of global drug development, they remain underexploited compared to the overwhelming attention devoted to GPCRs. Consequently, many marketed drugs targeting ion channels suffer from limitations such as poor selectivity, high toxicity, or suboptimal efficacy.

“Ion channels are a major challenge in drug design,“The reason lies in the high operational difficulty and significant technical barriers of patch-clamp electrophysiology technology, as well as the challenges in designing selective inhibitors. A lack of drug specificity can adversely affect other critical ion channels with similar structures,” said Li Yingji, Founder and General Manager of ICE Bioscience.

In 2010, Li Yingji and Yan Li co-founded ICE Bioscience upon their return to China, initially focusing on technology development services centered around ion channels. Currently, the therapeutic targets addressed by ICE Bioscience have expanded from ion channels to include GPCRs, kinases, nuclear receptors, and others, covering diseases in oncology, immunology, cardiovascular, central nervous system, and metabolic disorders. The company provides integrated biological services for innovative drug development, spanning target discovery and validation, lead compound screening and optimization, through to the preclinical candidate molecule stage.It was revealed that since 2023, ICE Bioscience has seen a continuous increase in order volume, representing a 150% year-on-year growth.Additionally,Recently, ICE Bioscience also announced the completion ofSecured nearly RMB 100 million in Series B+ funding, with rapid growth momentum.

Li Yingji, Founder and General Manager of ICE Bioscience. Photo provided by the interviewee.

“During the early stages of our founding, we focused on ion channels, partly because there was a severe lack of innovative companies in China targeting this area at the time, and partly because it aligned more closely with our research directions.” Co-founder Li Yingji holds a Ph.D. in Science from Jilin University and a Ph.D. in Cardiovascular Medicine from Justus-Liebig University of Giessen in Germany. The other founder, Yan Li, primarily focuses his research on diseases of the nervous system. Both neurological and cardiovascular diseases are key areas where ion channel research is concentrated.

However, at that time, the wave of innovative drug R&D had not yet surged in China. Few pharmaceutical companies were engaged in the development of innovative drugs, let alone those focusing on ion channels. In light of this reality, ICE Bioscience remained dormant for nearly five years. In 2015, the “Document No. 44,” officially titled *Opinions of the State Council on Reforming the Review and Approval System for Drugs and Medical Devices*, was issued. This landmark policy redefined generic and innovative drugs, launched the “consistency evaluation for generic drugs,” and gave the “green light” to innovative drugs that met the new criteria.

Riding this favorable momentum, ICE Bioscience’s business has gotten on track.To date, ICE Bioscience has provided services to over 600 domestic new drug R&D institutions, with hundreds of projects submitting Investigational New Drug (IND) applications for clinical studies annually, and multiple projects having successfully passed on-site inspections by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA).“After several years of development, the business scope of ICE Bioscience is no longer limited to ion channel technology. It now encompasses a broader range of targets, such as GPCRs and kinases, and covers most early-stage drug discovery and screening activities. Therefore, it is no longer appropriate to continue using the English name ‘Ion Channel Explorer,’” said Li Yingji.

In 2022, ICE Bioscience officially changed its English name from “Ion Channel Explorer” to “Innovative CRO+Explorer” (Explorer of Innovative CRO+), endowing ICE Bioscience with richer connotations.“In my view, CROs should not be limited to meeting clients’ customized needs but must also demonstrate greater innovation. We aim to build ICE Bioscience into a differentiated and innovative CRO company, which is the essence of ‘CRO+’.”Li Yingji added.

New drug development is a lengthy process, encompassing multiple stages from drug discovery to clinical trials. In the view of Li Yingji，Apart from the preclinical drug discovery phase, all subsequent development processes must be conducted in compliance with regulatory requirements or guidelines, meaning that innovation is primarily confined to the drug discovery stage. Therefore, ICE Bioscience continuously explores new targets and develops novel technologies to provide cutting-edge services for new drug research and development, “Leveraging independently developed novel targets and cutting-edge technologies, we aim to guide innovative pharmaceutical companies toward new research directions and expand their areas of investigation.It also integrates new technologies for development, including proteomics, structural biology, bioinformatics, and AI.”

Starting from ion channels as a target, ICE Bioscience has built an integrated, target-driven drug discovery biology platform leveraging AI, bioinformatics, structural biology, DNA-encoded libraries (DEL), organoids, proteomics, and other multidisciplinary technologies. The platform features a comprehensive target library and end-to-end biological services.

As of now,ICE Bioscience has mastered screening capabilities for over 130 ion channels, more than 150 GPCRs, and over 1,000 kinase and enzymatic targets. It maintains a collection of more than 1,000 cell lines—including over 800 human cell lines covering 30+ cancer types—as well as over 40 nuclear receptor screening cell lines and validation methods. Its portfolio encompasses nearly 1,500 druggable targets, including difficult-to-drug targets and specialized targets in the CNS field.

Notably, in addition to its 13 years of development experience in ion channels, ICE Bioscience provides comprehensive customized services tailored to individual needs for target development in kinases, enzymology, GPCRs, and other categories. Its cell-based platform is not only used to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of candidate compounds against various human cancers but also supports screening of test compounds for known targets with unknown indications, as well as customized services.

Meanwhile, ICE Bioscience has developed multiple technology platforms covering the entire process of early-stage new drug development, including in vitro tumor cell screening platform, in vitro immunology platform, neuroscience platform, cardiac pharmacology platform, and in vivo tumor immunopharmacology platform.

“Regarding disease areas, we focus on two major sectors: oncology and immunology. These fields have clearly defined clinical needs and represent key areas of intensive effort within the industry,” said Li Yingji. In the fields of oncology and immunology, ICE Bioscience has established a specialized in vivo pharmacology platform for tumor immunology. The company provides diverse model construction methods and employs a rich array of technical approaches to evaluate different animal models, as well as various indications within the same model, covering conditions such as cancer, inflammatory diseases, autoimmune disorders, and other diseases.

“Another key focus has been on diseases of the nervous and cardiovascular systems, which we have prioritized since our inception. We have accumulated 13 years of development experience in the research and development of neurological drugs,” Li Yingji told VCBeat New Medicine. In the field of neurological disorders, ICE Bioscience has established an integrated neuroscience drug screening platform spanning target-based, cellular, ex vivo, and in vivo levels, covering disease areas such as epilepsy, neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, pain, and neuroinflammation. Additionally, ICE Bioscience has developed a cardiac pharmacology platform capable of evaluating the effects of test compounds on cardiac electrophysiology, structure, and function in experimental animals or ex vivo heart models.

In addition to conducting in vitro and in vivo efficacy screening and evaluation using cells, proteins, organs, and animal models, ICE Bioscience has also established a druggability evaluation platform. “ICE Bioscience’s druggability evaluation platform primarily provides research services for compound druggability assessment. The service offerings include in vitro and in vivo drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK) studies, off-target effect evaluation (Safety Panel), cardiac safety evaluation, and kinase profiling and cell-based screening platforms (cell panel),” said Li Yingji.

Currently, ICE Bioscience has established laboratories and business centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Xuzhou, and Guiyang. Notably, in Guiyang, ICE Bioscience has expanded its reach into the research and development of innovative traditional Chinese medicines.

“In the future, we will continue to explore and accumulate more new targets, striving to remain at the global forefront. Meanwhile, we will further refine our technology platforms by optimizing technologies for in vitro and in vivo efficacy screening and druggability assessment, thereby reducing the risks and costs associated with new drug development. Along this path, we also aim to expand further upstream in the industry chain by independently developing more upstream platforms to promote the substitution of domestic products for imported ones,” said Li Yingji.

To advance in these directions, ICE Bioscience has established an innovative R&D department with over 40 members, including 10 PhDs, dedicated to developing new targets and new technologies to “keep pace with the latest global advancements.”

Furthermore, the core team at ICE Bioscience comprises members with clinical backgrounds, enabling them to interpret relevant data from a disease-oriented perspective and provide richer research insights. Prior to founding ICE Bioscience, the founder, Li Yingji, served as a cardiovascular clinician and has extensive experience in the R&D of new drugs for the cardiovascular and central nervous systems, as well as in the pharmacology and modernization of traditional Chinese medicine.

As Dr. Li Yingji stated, China’s drug R&D has evolved from generics and me-too drugs to best-in-class candidates. “With a future increase in first-in-class drugs, CROs will also transform into expert-driven enterprises, leading the direction of drug R&D and helping to solve more problems, thereby serving as the cornerstone for innovative pharmaceutical companies’ new drug development as a ‘platform,’” said Li Yingji.