Yuanqi Bio Files IPO Prospectus: Leveraging 20+ Years of MNC R&D Experience and Four Approved Drugs to Target a Billion-Dollar Small Molecule Therapeutics Market
Small-molecule chemical drugs have always been an indispensable component of the biopharmaceutical industry. Since many critical biological mechanisms underlying diseases operate within cells or require crossing the blood-brain barrier, small-molecule chemical drugs have become among the most promising therapeutic options.
Currently, there are over 3,000 small-molecule drugs marketed globally, and innovation in this field within the pharmaceutical industry has never ceased. Strategies such as identifying new targets, mitigating off-target effects to enhance safety, overcoming drug resistance, and combining with innovative biologics have become key focal points for small-molecule drug innovation. Leveraging its extensive experience in new drug development, Yuanqi Bio has distinguished itself by addressing these critical areas of innovation.
As a member of the large cohort developing innovative small-molecule drugs, Yuanqi Bio, founded in 2020, is dedicated to developing innovative therapies focused on transcriptional regulation for patients. Its experienced founding team and continuously iterated innovative technology platform are carving out a differentiated path for Yuanqi Bio’s development.
Prior to founding Yuanqi Bio,Dr. Ding Yuanhua, Co-Founder and CEO, previously served as Vice President of External Research & Development Innovation (ERDI) at Pfizer Global R&D and Head of the Asia-Pacific Discovery Laboratories., he primarily collaborates with colleagues from ERDI, Pfizer’s Business Development Group, and various divisions of Pfizer Asia to lead the evaluation of academic research institutions, biotechnology firms, and pharmaceutical laboratory technologies and assets in the Asia-Pacific region.
After completing his postdoctoral training at Harvard University in 1999, Ding Yuanhua joined Pfizer directly, where he worked for 21 years.
During his first nine years at Pfizer, Ding Yuanhua primarily worked on laboratory projects. When he initially transitioned from academia to industry, he had not yet realized that new drug development is an extremely challenging endeavor. Through his work, he discovered that every compound must undergo rigorous screening and control as it progresses from in vitro experiments to animal studies and ultimately to human clinical trials, requiring coordinated collaboration across multiple disciplines and technologies. This experience helped Ding understand that new drug development is not only a lengthy, complex, and highly rigorous process but also one characterized by high risk and uncertainty, with no guarantee of success for every candidate drug.
Since 2008, Ding Yuanhua has shifted his professional focus to project collaborations between Pfizer and the Asia-Pacific region. During this period, he witnessed a variety of distinctive innovative projects, recognized diverse opportunities for innovation, and observed the transformation of China’s biopharmaceutical industry from its nascent stages to rapid growth. The alignment of pharmaceutical regulatory policies with international standards, their increasing standardization, continuous advancements in R&D technologies, and the immense growth potential unleashed by the domestic pharmaceutical market have all driven the vigorous development of China’s innovative drug industry, while also fostering numerous entrepreneurial opportunities.
It is a rare occurrence for an entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical industry to have worked at a multinational pharmaceutical company for over two decades. Ding Yuanhua’s tenure at Pfizer continuously refined his understanding of new drug development, fostering a global perspective, an innovative mindset, and resilience in R&D. Meanwhile, the rapid growth of China’s biopharmaceutical industry further clarified his long-held aspiration to return home and launch his own venture.
During his tenure at Pfizer, Ding Yuanhua received numerous invitations from innovative pharmaceutical companies to join them and lead the expansion of their business development (BD) operations. However, his interest always lay in the translation and practical application of innovative technologies. It was not until the founding of Yuanqi Bio in 2020 that he further realized his goals and vision.
The establishment of Yuanqi Bio would not have been possible without the strong support of Professor Liu Zhijie, Chair of its Scientific Advisory Board for Pharmaceutical Sciences.Liu Zhijie currently serves as the Executive Director of the iHuman Institute at ShanghaiTech University, focusing on the structural and functional studies of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) associated with psychiatric, metabolic, oncological, and immunological diseases, as well as drug design targeting these receptors. He has achieved a series of breakthrough scientific results in the field of GPCR research. This area of novel drug development was also one that Ding Yuanhua had closely monitored and shown great interest in during his tenure at Pfizer.
Around 1995, Ding Yuanhua was pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh. Liu Zhijie, a fellow alumnus who was completing his postdoctoral studies there, befriended him during that time. Although their professional careers later took them in different directions, they never lost touch. Whenever Ding returned to Shanghai or Beijing, he would meet with Liu to discuss scientific research issues. Over time, the two developed a relationship characterized by mutual understanding and trust.
Driven by a shared passion for new drug development and mutual appreciation and trust, Ding Yuanhua and Liu Zhijie believed the time was ripe for entrepreneurship. In 2020, they co-founded Yuanqi Biopharma, a company focused on developing innovative therapies through transcriptional regulation.
Currently, Yuanqi Biotech has assembled a team of scientists and managers with extensive industry experience.The entire team hails from multinational pharmaceutical companies such as Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Novartis, boasting an average of over 20 years of R&D and management experience. These seasoned medicinal chemistry experts have successfully advanced four new drugs to market approval., equipped with rigorous professional expertise and efficient execution capabilities. They have laid a solid talent foundation for the future development of Yuanqi Bio.
Most small-molecule drugs are orally administrable, largely devoid of immunogenicity, and offer advantages such as cell membrane permeability, chemical stability, and ease of storage and transportation. However,The development of small-molecule drugs has consistently maintained a relatively low success rate, constrained by the year-on-year decline in the growth rates of novel target discovery and small-molecule library diversity.
In the face of this urgent issue that demands a breakthrough,Yuanqi Bio has developed a unique TR from the perspective of transcriptional regulation.PROTechnical Platform: The Engine for Early-Stage New Drug Development
Ding Yuanhua introduced that TRPROEquipped with three interlocking core drivers. First, in target screening, Yuanqi Bio compares diseased cells with those that have returned to normal following treatment, identifying unusual pathogenic genes during or after therapy and constructing gene profiles of signaling pathways. This approach focuses on multiple intracellular signaling pathways, ensuring comprehensive scanning and coverage of pathogenic genes. Next, Yuanqi Bio leverages big data and computational algorithms to perform precise secondary screening, identifying gene targets corresponding to different indications, thereby laying the foundation for subsequent molecular design. Finally, the collected valid information is shared with medicinal chemists to facilitate innovative structure-based molecular design, advancing the research and development of novel small-molecule drugs.
In addition to building TRPROYuanqi Bio adheres to rigorous criteria for project initiation when selecting drug indications. “What we prioritize most is identifying unmet clinical needs in the market, upholding the principle of responsibility toward patients in drug development. Secondly, based on these clinical needs, we leverage our core technological expertise to target disease areas where therapeutic efficacy can be achieved,” introduced Ding Yuanhua. “Another key point is the ability to establish collaborations with large pharmaceutical companies. The new drug R&D process is fraught with pitfalls. For a startup biotech company, pursuing innovation and bringing a drug from inception to market launch imposes stringent pressures on both investors and the team. By forging partnerships with pharmaceutical companies at an early stage, we can harness their resources to jointly accelerate the R&D process.”
With TR in placePROWith its technology platform and a clear project initiation strategy, Yuanqi Bio has developed multiple product pipelines, focusing on disease areas such as immunology and oncology. Among them,The first-in-class novel drug ATB102, developed for inflammatory bowel disease, has initiated preclinical studies.Ding Yuanhua introduced that most drugs for inflammatory bowel disease target inflammation itself and are associated with certain systemic side effects. In contrast, ATB102 achieves dual therapeutic effects through protein transcriptional regulation: in addition to suppressing inflammation, it promotes repair of the colonic epithelial barrier, thereby preventing recurrent inflammation in the damaged intestine and breaking the vicious cycle.
As Ding Yuanhua stated, innovation will be the keyword for Yuanqi Biotech’s future new drug development.In addition to ATB102, multiple first-in-class (FIC) and best-in-class (BIC) new drug development programs targeting ophthalmic, dermatologic, and oncologic diseases are ready for launch. Yuanqi Biotech will initiate preclinical studies and advance Investigational New Drug (IND) applications for these programs between 2022 and 2024.
Meanwhile, Yuanqi Bio has also established a deep collaboration with the iHuman Institute, where Professor Liu Zhijie is based, to explore targeted GPCR protein therapeutics with significant development potential and jointly develop differentiated novel drugs.
After successfully completing a RMB 135 million Series A financing round this summer, Yuanqi Bio reached a new development milestone in November with the official operation of its Suzhou R&D center. It is reported that Yuanqi Bio has accumulated more core data on new drugs and is full of confidence in the development of future pipelines.
Meanwhile, Yuanqi Bio has adopted a more globally oriented positioning, with its footprint extending beyond China to include operational hubs in both Suzhou, China, and Boston, USA. The Suzhou headquarters houses the core R&D team, driving new drug development and fostering project collaborations across the Asia-Pacific region. The Boston branch, equipped with international drug development capabilities, will focus on translational biology to facilitate global cooperation.
Yuanqi Biopharma was not established during the golden age of innovative drug development in China, but has instead chosen to buck the trend amid the current capital winter. In Ding Yuanhua’s view, this serves as a test for Yuanqi Biopharma, while investors’ trust stands as strong testament to its growth potential. He believes that Yuanqi Biopharma will ultimately emerge triumphant from the intense market consolidation.