Over 30 Leading UK Healthcare Companies to Showcase Innovations at the Second WuXi AppTec Health Industry Forum, Enabling Direct Sino-British Medical Collaboration

Collaboration remains an enduring cornerstone of the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. Cross-disciplinary and cross-border partnerships have become the dominant theme in the medical industry. WuXi AppTec provides comprehensive, integrated new drug research, development, and manufacturing services to the global biopharmaceutical industry. Its enabling platform currently supports R&D and innovation projects for more than 4,100 partners across over 30 countries worldwide.

To further pool global wisdom, promote worldwide knowledge sharing, and foster industry-wide integration, WuXi AppTec held the inaugural WuXi AppTec Health Industry Forum in 2019. The event attracted more than 3,500 companies and 6,500 industry professionals to attend in person, representing 25 countries and regions around the world.

It is reported that,The 2nd WuXi AppTec Healthcare Industry Forum will be held online from March 15–18, 2021.Themed “Innovative Collaboration for Patient Benefit,” the forum brought together more than 6,000 industry professionals from around the world to establish a cross-border platform for intellectual exchange, address key issues currently shaping the development of the health industry, accelerate and improve the delivery of cutting-edge drugs and therapies to patients, and help shape the future of healthcare.

Notably, at the 2nd WuXi AppTec Healthcare Industry Forum,More than 30 UK healthcare companies will participate, showcasing Britain’s cutting-edge technologies and innovative prowess to the global ecosystem while exploring opportunities for international collaboration.

As the world’s first industrialized nation, the United Kingdom has long maintained a leading position in the life sciences sector. Data show that the UK is one of the top three global life sciences hubs and the European country that attracts the most foreign investment in this industry. Three of the world’s top five universities for preclinical, clinical, and medical sciences are located in the UK. Twenty-five percent of the 100 most widely used medicines worldwide originated in the UK. The country has established the National Health Service (NHS), a globally leading healthcare system. With more than 80 Nobel laureates, the UK has been the birthplace of major breakthroughs in biology, including penicillin, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and Dolly the sheep. These discoveries underpin many of today’s leading biomedical products, technologies, and applications.

Leveraging its robust scientific research capabilities and unique healthcare ecosystem, the United Kingdom has emerged as one of the most productive representatives of the global life sciences industry. According to data released by the UK government, the British biopharmaceutical sector alone comprises 2,150 companies and generates annual revenues exceeding £50 billion, earning it the title of the “crown jewel” of the UK economy.

In recent years, driven by the UK Department for International Trade (DIT), exchanges and cooperation between the UK and China in the life sciences industry have increased year by year. This has brought significant positive impacts to the reform and development of China’s healthcare sector, facilitating substantial investment and collaboration between the two countries in the field of life sciences.

Undoubtedly, the performance of more than 30 UK enterprises will be one of the major highlights of this forum. It is understood that these 30 UK companies are focused on cutting-edge technologies, covering specialized fields such as oncology therapeutics, genomics, AI-driven healthcare, and cell therapy. Attendees are invited to observe.CEO Roundtable, enabling seamless engagement with numerous innovative UK enterprises.

Conference Registration Link：http://www.wuxionline.com/whf2021/#/

(The WuXi AppTec Health Industry Forum adopts a registration-by-invitation system, with no attendance fees charged.)

If you are interested in UK healthcare companies and have investment or collaboration needs, please feel free to contact us. Contact person:

Dr. Qionger He, British Consulate-General in Shanghai, qionger.he@fcdo.gov.uk WeChat: 13818204106

Ruijia Zhang, British Consulate-General in Chongqing, ruijia.zhang@fcdo.gov.uk WeChat: RJ140606

Attached are the profiles of selected UK corporate speakers and their companies:

Speakers:Steve Bates,CEO

Association Profile:The UK Bioindustry Association (BIA), established 25 years ago, aims to help UK healthcare companies grow and position the UK as a global leader in the life sciences industry by improving access to financing, fostering long-term investment, and influencing policy.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=148

Speaker:Melanie Lee,CEO

Company Profile:LifeArc is a non-profit medical research organization with a robust financial foundation to drive research that delivers significant health benefits to patients. LifeArc primarily focuses on four areas: anti-infectives, neuroscience, personalized oncology, and respiratory diseases. It has completed the humanization of over 60 antibodies and contributed to the development of four marketed drugs, including Keytruda, Actemra, Tysabri, and Entyvio. In the future, LifeArc will remain committed to further translating cutting-edge medical research and technologies into applications that benefit patients.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=27

Speaker:Andrew Hopkins,CEO

Company Profile:Exscientia is a world-leading AI-driven drug discovery company. Its core business involves leveraging an AI platform to guide drug development by automatically designing millions of small-molecule compounds targeting specific biological targets based on existing drug discovery data. These compounds are evaluated and screened according to criteria such as efficacy, selectivity, and ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion) properties. The selected candidates then undergo experimental testing, with the results fed back into the AI system to refine further screening. This approach aims to accelerate the new drug development process and reduce costs. In 2019 and 2020, Exscientia advanced two AI-designed drug candidates into clinical trials and has established collaborations with renowned international pharmaceutical companies, including GSK, Sanofi, BMS, Bayer, and Evotec.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=60

Guest Speakers:Tony de Fougerolles ,CEO

Company Profile:Evox Therapeutics is an exosome application development company dedicated to developing innovative exosome-based biologics for the treatment of various severe diseases. Leveraging its proprietary DeliverEX™ technology, the company employs diverse molecular engineering, drug loading, and targeting strategies to modify exosomes, thereby facilitating targeted drug delivery to organs such as the brain and central nervous system and addressing the limitations of existing drug delivery technologies.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=121

Speakers:Rosamond Deegan,CEO

Company Profile:OMass Therapeutics is a drug development company that leverages high-resolution mass spectrometry technology to discover drugs targeting membrane proteins, including G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), and develops small-molecule therapeutics for immune and genetic diseases.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=101

Speaker:Chris Torrence,CEO

Company Profile:Phoremost is an innovative biotechnology company dedicated to drug discovery for “undruggable” targets. It has developed SITESEEKER®, a next-generation phenotypic screening platform based on the company’s core proprietary PROTEINi® (“protein interference”) technology. This platform systematically reveals cryptic druggable sites across the entire human genome and directly links them to efficacious therapeutic functions within living cells. Leveraging phenotypic readouts, PROTEINi® enables large-scale exploration and identification of drug mimetics in living cells.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=54

Speaker:Denise Scots-Knight,CEO

Company Profile:Mereo is dedicated to delivering innovative therapies for patients with rare diseases and cancer. The company’s pipeline candidates include acumapimod (for patients with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [AECOPD]), setrusumab (for adult patients with osteogenesis imperfecta), etigilimab (for patients with advanced solid tumors), alvelestat (for the treatment of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency), and leflutrozole (for the treatment of male infertility).

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=15

Guest Speakers:David Atkins,CEO

Company Profile:Congenica leverages its world-leading platform to rapidly interpret complex genomic data. Congenica’s software delivers precise diagnostic results, maximizes clinical laboratory efficiency, reduces the cost of genomic interpretation by up to 95%, and accelerates genomic data analysis by a factor of 20. Currently, Congenica has become the exclusive decision support partner for the NHS Genomic Medicine Service. Congenica is collaborating with Chinese healthcare institutions on the diagnosis of rare diseases.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=73

Guest Speakers:Chris Claxton,VP of investor relations

Company Profile:Owlstone Medical has developed a revolutionary breath biopsy technology for the early screening of lung cancer, as well as other cancers and complex diseases. By utilizing their patented breath molecular capture device to collect breath samples, they employ established microchip chemical sensor technology to analyze volatile organic compounds present in the breath, thereby enabling the detection of cancer, inflammatory diseases, and infectious diseases. Owlstone’s vision is to save 100,000 lives.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=48

Guest Speakers:Loic Lhuillier,COO

Company Profile:Exonate focuses on the alternative splicing of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the field of ophthalmology. The company improves retinal vascular diseases by targeting mRNA and has developed an eye drop for retinal diseases, which can be used to treat wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=104

Speakers:Danuta Jeziorska, CEO and Founder

Company Profile:Nucleome Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that leverages 3D genomics to further investigate the relationship between genetic variants and diseases, identify novel drug targets for autoimmune diseases, and develop small-molecule drugs targeting these candidates.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=139

Speakers:Steve Smith, Founder & CSO

Company Profile:Clearsky Medical is a medical device company that leverages proprietary, patented algorithms to develop non-invasive, rapid, and user-friendly diagnostic and monitoring devices. These devices can be used for the definitive diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, monitoring of medication side effects in Parkinson’s patients, objective assessment of visuospatial abilities, and differentiation of neurodegenerative disorders.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=24

Speakers:John Sinden，CEO

Company Profile:Glialign, founded in 2018, is dedicated to developing novel cell therapies for the treatment of peripheral nerve injuries. The company’s proprietary EngNT technology mimics native nerve architecture to support nerve regeneration and functional recovery, thereby reducing the time, cost, and risks associated with autologous surgical grafting while improving clinical outcomes.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=17

Speakers:Nicholas Skaer,CEO

Company Profile:Orthox is a medical device company that has developed FibroFix, a novel biomaterial platform for repairing injured cartilage and bone, with a focus on the research and development of regenerative implants. The company has already developed a product for repairing meniscal injuries and another for treating knee joint injuries.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=28

Guest Speakers:Rajarshi Banerjee,CEO

Company Profile:Perspectum is dedicated to developing patented technologies for visceral organ diagnostic medicine, addressing significant gaps in this field. The company’s product, LiverMultiScan, leverages magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to non-invasively and painlessly assess liver tissue fibrosis, iron content, and fat content. It can be used both for predicting early-stage chronic liver disease and for evaluating the severity of organ pathology, thereby establishing a new assessment framework for the non-invasive diagnosis of liver cirrhosis and hepatic fibrosis.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=100

Guest Speakers:David Hughes,CEO

Company Profile:CN Bio Innovations is a developer of human organ-on-a-chip technologies. The company has developed laboratory instruments for organ-on-a-chip systems, which can transform the way pharmaceutical companies develop new drugs by improving the accuracy and efficiency of drug discovery, with the potential to eliminate animal testing.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=47

Speakers:Kam Pooni,CEO

Company Profile:Glyconics is an innovative diagnostic technology company developing novel diagnostic and monitoring solutions for respiratory diseases. The company has developed a handheld device for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that employs infrared spectroscopy to analyze sputum samples for the detection of specific COPD biomarkers.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=13

Speakers:Tim Mitchell,CEO

Company Profile:Sareum, based in Cambridge, UK, specializes in the development of small-molecule drugs for the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as cancer. The company’s investigational candidate, SDC-1801, is a TYK2/JAK1 inhibitor that has demonstrated promising efficacy in psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=55

Speakers:David Kerr, Founder & CMO

Company Profile:Celleron Therapeutics is a UK-based biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing targeted therapies for various tumors, particularly those indications where existing treatments fail to achieve effective and long-term control. The company’s drug pipeline includes Zabinostat (for the treatment of colorectal cancer and lymphoma) and Emactuzumab (for the treatment of diffuse-type tenosynovial giant cell tumor).

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=83

Speakers:Nina Skorytchenko,CEO

Company Profile:Avenna is a precision medicine company that enables early detection of chronic inflammatory diseases (CID) through regular monitoring of the GlyHealth Index (GHI), facilitates understanding of disease progression, and supports timely implementation of effective interventions to reduce CID-related mortality.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=57

Speaker:Parthiban Vijayarangakannan,CEO

Company Profile:Based in Cambridge, UK, Svastia provides powerful gene analysis software and the latest clinical genetic data powered by bioinformatics, helping clients accelerate drug development and reduce associated risks. The company has already established collaborations with more than 30 enterprises and hospitals.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=102

Speaker:Hakim Yadi,CEO

Company Profile:Closed Loop Medicine integrates digital therapeutics, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices to digitize the entire treatment and care process. It aims to provide personalized, closed-loop treatment plans for patients with sleep disorders, hypertension, chronic pain, diabetes, and other conditions, thereby improving treatment and care outcomes while reducing costs.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=166

Speaker:Sam Williams,CEO

Company Profile:Istesso is a drug development company focused on the field of immunometabolism, dedicated to “reprogramming” human cells to restore normal cellular metabolism for the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and cancer.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=202

Speakers:Mark Vallance, Head of International Sales

Company Profile:Rosemont is a specialized pharmaceutical company engaged in the research and development, manufacturing, and commercialization of a portfolio of oral liquid medications. Currently, the company offers more than 130 oral liquid drugs spanning multiple therapeutic areas, including anesthesia, cardiovascular diseases, central nervous system disorders, infections, joint diseases, and respiratory conditions.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=169

Speaker:Jason Mellad,CEO

Company Profile:Start Codon is a life sciences-focused accelerator dedicated to identifying startups with disruptive innovation capabilities. Leveraging the unique resources of the University of Cambridge cluster, it provides business support, seed funding, expert teams, and networking opportunities to help startups mitigate risks and accelerate their path to success.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=161

Speaker:Charlotte Casebourne,CEO

Company Profile:Theolytics is an oncolytic virus therapy R&D company dedicated to developing effective, intravenously administered targeted drugs through its phenotypic screening platform. Currently, the company is developing a pipeline of novel therapeutics for solid tumors and hematologic malignancies through both in-house and collaborative efforts.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=163

Speakers:Gary Woodward,CTO

Company Profile:Ultromics is an artificial intelligence imaging company whose image analysis system, EchoGo Core, can automatically analyze echocardiograms to help physicians diagnose cardiovascular diseases quickly and accurately. Currently, EchoGo Core has received approval from the U.S. FDA.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=197

Speaker:Stuart Collinson,CEO

Company Profile:Mirodia Therapeutics is dedicated to developing small-molecule drugs that promote in vivo regeneration of the olfactory network.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=93

Guest Speakers:Mike Romanos,CEO

Company Profile:Microbiotica is dedicated to the development of microbiome therapeutics, leveraging its precision metagenomic microbiome platform to analyze gut bacteria associated with patient phenotypes for the development of live biotherapeutic products. The company has established collaborations with Genentech, Cancer Research UK, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Adelaide, and is currently developing live biotherapeutic products for the treatment of cancer and ulcerative colitis.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=182

Speaker:Sam Lighthouse,CEO

Company Profile:LightOx is dedicated to developing photoactivated therapies for the treatment of oral cancer. Leveraging probe technology based on fluorescent molecular imaging, it induces apoptosis in selected cells and tissues, thereby enabling early detection and treatment of oral squamous cell carcinoma while minimizing damage to healthy cells.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=177

Speaker:Anthony Coombs,CEO

Company Profile:Oxford Vacmedix, founded by Dr. Jiang Shisong, leverages his proprietary recombinant overlapping peptide technology to develop immunotherapeutic drugs for cancer, aiming to eradicate tumors by activating patients’ immune systems.

Roadshow Link:https://www.wuxionline.com/WHF2021/index.html#/roundDetail?id=204