Pinsheng Healthcare Launches Strategic Sub-brand Untangled Bio, Focused on Molecular Phenomics for End-to-End Clinical Translation and Drug Development

On October 12, the online launch event for Antan Bio, a strategic sub-brand of Pingsheng Medical focused on multi-omics, was successfully held. Pingsheng Medical Group officially announced the launch of Antan Bio, a strategic sub-brand dedicated to providing end-to-end clinical translation services for molecular phenotype multi-omics with proteomics at its core. As a next-generation platform enterprise in multi-omics, Antan Bio is committed to delivering comprehensive solutions for biomarker discovery and translation, serving basic life sciences research, drug development, and clinical diagnosis and treatment, thereby enabling precision medicine at the molecular phenotype level. As a strategic business unit under Pingsheng Medical, Antan Bio will work alongside its parent company, Pingsheng Medical Group, to jointly promote the establishment of a new ecosystem for precision medicine driven by multi-omics research.

At the launch event, Academician Zhang Yukui of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, extended his congratulations on the launch of Antan Bio. He noted that in recent years, the interdisciplinary field between analytical chemistry and life sciences has become a focal point of research. Proteomics, with mass spectrometry as its core technology, has driven the development of precision medicine by addressing the bottlenecks of poor stability, low throughput, and high costs associated with traditional omics studies, thereby effectively bridging the gap in technological translation within life and health science research. He expressed hope that the establishment of Antan Bio, a sub-brand under Pinsheng Medical’s multi-omics strategy, will accelerate multi-omics research and technological translation, and expand the application scenarios of mass spectrometry in clinical research, drug development, companion diagnostics, and other fields.

Song Ruilin, Executive President of the China Pharmaceutical Innovation Promotion Association (CPIA), stated that the cross-sector integration of information technology and life sciences will disrupt China’s traditional models of pharmaceutical and medical device regulation, R&D, clinical diagnosis and treatment, and disease prevention, making significant contributions to meeting the growing global demand for health. During the 7th China Pharmaceutical Innovation and Investment Conference on December 13, 2022, CPIA plans to establish the Professional Committee on Pharmaceutical Digitalization and Innovative Therapies. This committee aims to promote cross-disciplinary collaboration between the IT and BT (biotechnology) industries, facilitate a new paradigm of digital-intelligent development in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors driven by data and modern technological means, and contribute further to empowering pharmaceutical and medical device innovation through digital technologies, thereby satisfying the global population’s increasing aspirations for better health and well-being.As an emerging enterprise representative within CPIA in the field of mass spectrometry-based precision medicine, Pinsheng Medical is committed to leveraging cutting-edge multi-omics technology platforms integrated with emerging technical approaches such as data mining and bioinformatics analysis to advance global drug innovation and R&D. The company bears the responsibility and mission of promoting innovative development in China’s pharmaceutical and medical device industries. It is hoped that Pinsheng Medical and Antan Bio will remain true to their original aspirations, fully leverage their advanced professional technical advantages, and work together with the CPIA family to make new contributions to the development of China’s economy, society, and healthcare sector.

In 2015, precision medicine was established as a national-level development strategy in China. Multi-omics technologies, represented by proteomics, hold broad application prospects in “precision medicine,” playing a significant role across the entire value chain of early diagnosis and screening, innovative drug development, and companion diagnostics.

In recent years, the global proteomics market has experienced significant growth, driven by the increasing applicability of proteomics in disease diagnosis and drug development. The domestic proteomics market in China has also witnessed a surge in activity. However, due to the complexity of proteomics technologies, numerous challenges remain for this emerging translational medicine technology. It is understood that commercial high-performance mass spectrometry platforms are currently the mainstream tools for proteomic analysis. Nevertheless, issues such as operational complexity, low throughput, and high costs limit the application of proteomics in clinical research, particularly in large-scale clinical studies.

The development of proteomics requires innovative technologies to empower the field, overcome the developmental bottlenecks faced by traditional commercial research-oriented omics platforms, and facilitate standardized, large-scale clinical translational research. Dr. Cheng Xiaoliang, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Pingsheng Medical, reviewed the rationale behind establishing Antan Bio: “The core technical team at Pingsheng Medical comprises some of the earliest technical experts in China engaged in proteomics and metabolomics research. Hailing from top-tier omics research institutions both domestically and internationally, the team has accumulated extensive experience in mass spectrometry-based molecular phenotyping technologies. As Pingsheng Medical matured in the field of routine clinical mass spectrometry testing, it further embarked on the exploration of developing and translating novel biomarkers in frontier areas. Against this backdrop, Antan Bio was successfully incubated, organically integrating the team’s years of accumulated expertise in omics technologies, scientific innovation, and IVD industrialization. This integration has addressed the challenges associated with the clinical translation of novel biomarkers, establishing an end-to-end workflow from discovery and validation to translation.”

Dr. Cheng stated, “We aim to continue promoting the integration of multi-omics technologies, such as proteomics and metabolomics, and further advance their clinical applications, while maintaining and expanding Pinsheng Medical’s leading market position in the translation of multi-omics research for precision medicine and the development of clinical mass spectrometry technologies.”

Dr. Zhang Wei, Chief Technology Officer of Pinsheng Medical, provided a detailed overview of Antan Bio’s technological advantages in the fields of multi-omics research and translation.

The qPharos Omics Beacon technology, developed by Antan Bio, leverages specialized isotope labeling to achieve real-time, precise calibration across the entire experimental workflow—including sample pre-processing, mass spectrometry detection, and data analysis. This approach fundamentally resolves issues related to reproducibility and stability at every stage of experimentation. Building upon the qPharos technology, the independently developed qULTRA Omics Platform further enhances performance through holistic optimization, substitution with domestically produced components, construction of a proprietary spectral library, and innovation in bioinformatics big-data algorithms. The platform boasts unique advantages such as high sensitivity, high stability, high throughput, and absolute quantification, enabling the efficient and continuous generation of molecular phenomics data. The qULTRA Platform supports multi-omics molecular phenotyping—including proteomics, post-translational modification proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics—across various types of clinical samples. Having undergone global multi-center validation, the platform ensures the reliability of biomarker discovery and translational processes.

It is understood that, leveraging the qPharos Omics Beacon technology and the qULTRA Precision Omics Discovery and Validation Platform, Antan Bio has established a comprehensive research pathway for clinical proteomics and metabolomics—spanning from non-targeted discovery to targeted validation and modeling, and ultimately to large-scale clinical application—thereby providing a one-stop solution for precision omics.

Dr. Zhou Yue, Director of the Precision Omics Center at Pinsheng Medical, shared the latest advancements of Antan Bio in molecular phenomics clinical research. This end-to-end service platform has supported clinical studies at numerous benchmark hospitals and has developed and translated innovative diagnostic applications in the fields of cardiovascular disease, maternal and child health, and neurodegenerative disorders.

Meanwhile, the “14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry” specifically highlights the development of innovative technologies such as novel drugs, listing frontier core technologies and therapeutics—including immunotherapy and cell therapy—as key priorities. This aims to address the systemic challenges of target identification and drug resistance that have long plagued the pharmaceutical industry, thereby providing patients with treatment regimens that offer enhanced efficacy and reduced side effects. Dr. Zhou Yue noted that against the backdrop of intense competition and target saturation in innovative drug R&D, future new drug research is gradually shifting from genomics based on genetic information to molecular phenomics based on proteins and metabolism. As China is only at the nascent stage in this field, there is an urgent need for world-class molecular phenomics platforms to support related research. It is reported that Antan Biotechnology has already collaborated with domestic and international pharmaceutical companies, leveraging multi-omics technologies to drive source innovation in new drug development.

As a pioneer in omics and mass spectrometry research, Dr. Cheng Xiaoliang continues to support Antan Bio in its dedicated multi-omics innovation, adhering to the principle of achieving customer success through independent innovation and realizing precision diagnosis and treatment at the molecular phenotype level. Dr. Cheng stated that, as the founder of the group, he will fully leverage the group’s advantages to enhance Pingsheng Medical Group’s comprehensive clinical mass spectrometry solutions. By leveraging the established robust business model and nationwide sales network, Pingsheng Medical Group will provide Antan Bio with continuous resources and market access. As the upstream component of Pingsheng Medical Group’s full-stack technological layout, Antan Bio will serve as the group’s source innovation center, continuously empowering the group and jointly promoting the establishment of a new ecosystem for precision diagnosis and treatment driven by multi-omics research within Pingsheng Medical Group.