Everest Medicines Announces New Strategic Plan to Accelerate Transformation into a Fully Integrated Biopharmaceutical Company

On January 4, Everest Medicines (HKEX: 1952.HK) announced its strategic plan for the next two years and beyond. The company will further transform into an integrated biopharmaceutical enterprise with a full-value-chain layout, encompassing robust in-house R&D and licensing-in capabilities, clinical development expertise, as well as substantial manufacturing and commercialization capacities. Its nephrology and mRNA platform portfolios will become key focus areas for Everest Medicines, with multiple highly promising early- and late-stage candidate products in both fields.

Everest Medicines CEO Luo Yongqing stated, “Over the past five years, Everest Medicines has achieved remarkable success and built a top-tier product pipeline. We are now transitioning from a successful in-licensing model to a dual-engine strategy that combines robust independent R&D with strong business development capabilities. This shift marks our evolution from a biotechnology company focused on clinical development into an integrated biopharmaceutical company encompassing R&D, manufacturing, and commercialization, aiming to achieve industry leadership in Asia. In the next phase of our development, we will focus on building our commercialization capabilities, leveraging Nefecon as our flagship product to successfully launch multiple innovative drugs and vaccines addressing significant unmet medical needs within the next five years.”

Nefecon is the flagship product in Everest Medicines’ nephrology portfolio and is expected to receive marketing approval in China in the second half of 2023. China has the highest incidence of primary glomerular diseases worldwide, with IgA nephropathy being the most common form, affecting approximately 5 million patients in the country. Everest Medicines is also developing a pipeline of other promising therapeutics targeting glomerular diseases to address unmet patient needs.

Meanwhile, Everest Medicines plans to initiate clinical trials in China in 2023 for its bivalent mRNA COVID-19 candidate vaccine, EVER-COVID19-M1, targeting the Omicron variant, and intends to submit an application for Emergency Use Authorization by the end of the year. Within less than 16 months of collaborating with Providence Therapeutics, Everest Medicines has completed technology transfer for industrialization, advanced its clinically validated mRNA platform, established an mRNA vaccine industrialization base with commercial-scale production capacity in Jiashan, Zhejiang, and successfully conducted trial production. In addition to COVID-19 vaccines, Everest Medicines will continue to fully leverage the potential of its mRNA technology platform to develop multiple preventive and therapeutic vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer.

In addition to its focus on nephrology and mRNA platforms, Everest Medicines’ pipeline includes several best-in-class candidate products, such as eravacycline, a novel antibacterial agent expected to receive new drug approval in 2023, and etrasimod for the treatment of ulcerative colitis.

About Everest Medicines

Everest Medicines is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of innovative drugs and vaccines, dedicated to addressing unmet medical needs in the Asian market. The management team of Everest Medicines has extensive expertise and rich experience in high-quality clinical development, regulatory affairs, chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC), business development, and operations at leading pharmaceutical companies in China and globally. Everest Medicines has built a portfolio of drug candidates with the potential to become first-in-class or best-in-class globally, most of which are in late-stage clinical trials. The company’s therapeutic areas include cardiorenal diseases, autoimmune disorders, and infectious and contagious diseases.