Kingmed Biotech: Led by a Turnaround Veteran, How Will Its Organoid Platform Navigate the Billion-Dollar Blue Ocean?

Over his more than 20 years in the biopharmaceutical industry, Mr. Huang Lin, founder of Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd., has maintained a longstanding habit: whenever conditions permit, he spends one to two months abroad each year engaging with peers in the forefront of the global biopharmaceutical community, gaining insights into emerging technologies, and leveraging China’s vast market demand to attract such talent and technologies to the country.

Huang Lin and his team have focused on organoid technology for many years, but in the early stages, the technology remained largely confined to the research phase. It was not until 2017 that a series of landmark academic achievements began to emerge in this field, leading Nature Methods to name organoids the “Method of the Year 2017” in the life sciences. These frequent breakthroughs further strengthened Huang Lin’s resolve to strategically position himself in the organoid sector.

Following preliminary research and resource accumulation,In January 2019, Huang Lin formally established the Jiashiteng platform and assumed the roles of Chairman and CEO. Centered on organoid technology, Jiashiteng strategically focuses on application scenarios in “precision medicine + new drug development,” complemented by precision oncology therapeutics, with the aim of creating an integrated organoid-based solution for diagnosis and treatment.

Before embarking on his entrepreneurial venture, Huang Lin served as CEO of the publicly listed companies “Peking University Pharmaceutical” and “Shuangcheng Pharmaceutical,” bringing with him 20 years of experience in working and managing within publicly listed pharmaceutical firms and large-scale pharmaceutical and healthcare enterprises.

At the age of 32, he became the CEO of Peking University Pharmaceutical, a publicly listed company. He is both a witness to and a participant in the rapid development of China’s pharmaceutical industry. “I have personally experienced everything from the shareholding system reform of listed companies in the early 2000s to the subsequent reforms of the drug registration system, the Two-Invoice System, centralized procurement, and the rise of biotech.”

Huang Lin has not only witnessed numerous reforms in the healthcare system but, as an executive of a publicly listed company, has also led major initiatives including the relocation and construction of large-scale modern manufacturing facilities, comprehensive iterations of technical products, and strategic collaborations with multinational pharmaceutical corporations. In 2013, while working at Peking University Pharmaceutical, he was responsible for introducing the first continuous flow microreactor system in Southwest China, addressing challenges related to process efficiency and safety in the production of pharmaceutical raw materials. In 2014, he led his team in establishing a strategic partnership with H Company, a renowned multinational pharmaceutical firm from the United States, and planned and constructed what was then the largest manufacturing base for anti-tumor injectable preparations in China.

Among these, the most “thrilling” experience dates back to Peking University Healthcare’s acquisition of Southwest Synthetic Pharmaceutical Factory (the predecessor of PKU Health). At that time, Huang Lin and a core management team of fewer than 10 people were “appointed in a crisis” to take over this heavily burdened pharmaceutical enterprise. “When our team took over, the company was losing more than RMB 50 million, had less than RMB 50,000 in cash on hand, yet employed thousands of staff. The pressure was truly immense.”

With the support of the local government, the team advanced steadily and turned the tide, ultimately breathing new life into the company. During Huang Lin’s tenure at Peking University Pharmaceutical, the company’s annual revenue exceeded RMB 2.5 billion, and its market capitalization reached an all-time high of nearly RMB 15 billion.

Huang Lin joked, “That’s why founding Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. felt relatively ‘easy.’ To be honest, the pressure I faced before was far greater than that of starting a business. Entrepreneurship begins from ‘zero,’ whereas we started from ‘negative.’”"Having experienced so much in the past, I am now able to let go of certain burdens and focus on excelling in product development and market expansion, thereby realizing the strategic initiatives in new technologies, new products, and industry chain layout that I was unable to pursue during my tenure at the listed company."

Today, Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. has established a high-caliber professional team spanning the entire value chain, including technology R&D, industrial translation, and market expansion. The team’s expertise covers interdisciplinary fields and technologies such as cell biology, immunology, biomaterials science, engineering, pharmacy, medicine, and artificial intelligence. Over the past three years, the company’s technical team, either independently or in collaboration with research partners, has published more than 30 SCI-indexed academic papers, with a cumulative impact factor exceeding 250.

With our team and technology,Jiashiteng garnered favor from major shareholders of listed companies and state-owned investment funds, including Boji, Jointown Pharmaceutical Group, Shenzhen Investment Holdings, and Taihe Pharmaceutical Industry Investment, completing its angel and Series A financing rounds in its early stages. Over the past two years, Jiashiteng has developed and validated next-generation organoid technologies and initiated their industrialization, establishing collaborations on organoids with numerous renowned Grade 3A hospitals and new drug R&D enterprises.

Before deciding to deeply cultivate the organoid field, Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. conducted research and identified the development pain points existing in this industry.

First, organoids need to closely mimic the human microenvironment during the process of industrial translation.Although current organoid technology has met the conditions for application within a certain scope, organoids cultured on petri dish substrates can only incorporate limited elements of the human microenvironment. To enable organoid technology to play a broader role and meet the stringent requirements of industrial-scale applications, more scientifically designed organoid product formats are needed, such as increasingly sophisticated organ-on-a-chip systems that allow for the integrated co-culture of multiple interconnected organoids.

“It is not that current organoid technology is unscientific; its underlying technologies have undoubtedly matured through years of development and academic validation, supporting their application within certain scopes. However, for organoids to become a explosively adopted technology in the industry, the challenge of closely mimicking the human microenvironment must be addressed. I believe there is room for continuous progress in this field over the next decade, and Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. has been making unremitting efforts toward this goal,” Huang Lin told VCBeat.

Secondly, achieving standardization of organoid products is also a major challenge.Currently, the sources of raw materials in the organoid field are diverse, with varying operational standards and personnel-related procedural deviations across different companies. Without standardization, organoid technology will remain confined to the research stage and fail to achieve large-scale industrialization. Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. achieves in-house production of core raw materials to ensure consistent and controllable quality, maximizes the use of automated equipment for organoid culture and experimentation, and implements a “biopharmaceutical-grade” quality control system to guarantee standardization throughout the entire process.

Linked to the second question, the third concerns the complexity and consistency issues in the translational process of organoid technology."During organoid experiments, if most tasks are performed manually or decisions are made by humans, this issue cannot be resolved. 'Especially for some delicate operations, slight deviations in technique or human judgment can have varying impacts on the product. Therefore, this problem needs to be addressed through automation combined with AI.'"

Building on the aforementioned three pain points, advancing technological translation toward the industrial sector gives rise to issues of standardization.This issue requires joint efforts from upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry as well as regulatory authorities to collectively improve and promote the standardization of the industry.

Addressing the aforementioned pain points, Jiashiteng has prioritized standardization, becoming the first organoid platform in China to obtain a medical laboratory license for “clinical cytogenetics and molecular genetics.” In subsequent scale-up production, all key materials used by Jiashiteng will be manufactured under Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) conditions. Currently, Jiashiteng has established a 4,000-square-meter production facility in Chongqing, marking its potential to become the first company in China to truly manufacture organoid products under GMP conditions.

Furthermore, Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. has established interdisciplinary technologies spanning cell biology, molecular biology, biomaterials science, medicine, immunology, pharmacy, AI, chips, and 3D printing. Simultaneously, it has strategically positioned itself in four key sectors—precision medicine, new drug R&D, scientific research, and regenerative medicine—to capture the potential trillion-yuan blue-ocean market.

Centered on four major application areas, based on“Tumor Organoids + Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Organoids” Dual-Technology Approach, Currently, Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. can successfully construct over 20 types of tumor organoids with high efficiency, as well as iPSC/ESC-derived organoids including those of the heart, brain, liver, kidney, pancreatic islets, and trophoblast.

In addition to possessing a superior organoid culture and quality control system, reliable capabilities for constructing complex immune co-culture systems, controllable in-house production of biomaterials, and advanced organoid-on-a-chip design capabilities, Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. also features a next-generation ultra-high-throughput drug sensitivity testing method based on comprehensive tumor organoids, as well as an AI-driven organoid technology framework, thereby maximizing empowerment for the research, development, and production of organoid-based products.

Notably, Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. is the first company in the industry to integrate organoid technology with AI technology, maintaining a leading position in the sector. In June this year, at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC 2023) held in Shanghai, its “Intelligent Organoid System” was awarded the Silver Award in the Medical Track of the BPAA Algorithm Model Competition.

Building on the aforementioned technologies, Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. has established both B2B and B2C business operations.

In the B2B sector, Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. provides a range of standardized organoid products and CRO services to clients across the upstream and downstream segments of the industry chain.

For New Drug R&D Companies, Kingmed Pharma offers services including finished drug compound screening, immunotherapy evaluation, drug toxicity assessment, and clinical trial protocol optimization.For Research InstitutionsChongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. offers a variety of customized models, including organoid biobanking, construction of organoid disease models, organoid immune co-culture models, organoid microbial co-culture models, and genetically engineered mouse-derived organoid modeling. Furthermore, to serve these clients, the company has launched standardized organoid culture media kits to meet the independent R&D needs of pharmaceutical companies and research institutions.

Targeting B2B clients, Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. is about to launch China’s first automated organoid solution, enabling customers to conduct various organoid cultures and experiments.Furthermore, Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. has engaged in multi-dimensional clinical research collaborations on organoids with numerous renowned medical institutions and experts. The precision medicine application value of organoids, along with the company’s differentiated technological advantages, has gained widespread recognition from clients. Throughout these collaborations, Chongqing Kingmed Pharma will actively partner with medical institutions and national biobanks to establish China’s most influential AI-driven organoid dry and wet biobanks.

In the consumer-facing sector, Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. can provide healthcare institutions and patients with precision medicine services for over 20 types of tumor organoids, utilizing the most advanced and scientifically rigorous drug susceptibility testing methods.

Currently, the company has formed“Jiajiekang^®” (Digestive System), “Jiatuning^®”(Respiratory and Thoracic Systems), “Jiayian^®”(Gynecology System), “Jiaruike^®"(Urinary System), "Jiaweining^TM”(Rare Tumors)Five Major Tumor Organoid Product Lines. Furthermore, leveraging the core team’s nearly two decades of technological and resource accumulation in the pharmaceutical sector, Chongqing Kingmed Pharma Co., Ltd. is developing precision therapeutics primarily focused on tumor-targeted drugs that exhibit high synergy with organoids. This approach establishes a differentiated advantage through integrated diagnosis and treatment, accelerates the commercialization of the entire project, and comprehensively meets patients’ needs for precision medicine.

In February this year, Kingmed Pharma’s first oncology drug, Abiraterone Acetate Tablets (brand name: Jiaruitan^®) has already been approved, and it is expected that an ultra-high-throughput organ-on-a-chip product and a breakthrough in vitro organoid disease model product will be launched in the second half of this year.

Reflecting on his entrepreneurial journey, Huang Lin summarized, “For the past 20 years, I have been immersed in the healthcare sector, where I have accumulated industrial and technical resources and gained insights into industry dynamics. Given the limited interconnectivity between healthcare and other industries, coupled with high barriers to entry, I will continue to focus exclusively on this field. My goal is to lead my team in developing more products that address unmet clinical needs.”

Looking to the future, Huang Lin stated, “Jiashiteng originated in Chongqing, but our ambitions extend far beyond this city. We have already established a central laboratory in Beijing. In the future, Jiashiteng plans to set up four central laboratories across China, and our related standardized industrial products will also be exported overseas. Our primary rationale for investing in organoid technology is that organoids represent a revolutionary new generation of in vitro models capable of disrupting traditional models and delivering substantial application value. Jiashiteng has positioned itself to focus on four key application areas for organoids: precision medicine, new drug development, regenerative medicine, and scientific research. The market potential in these sectors is valued at hundreds of billions of yuan, which is more than sufficient to justify our strategic commitment and investment.”

We look forward to Chongqing Kingmed Pharma launching more advanced organoid solutions to address unmet clinical needs and play a leading role in the industrialization of organoids.