Tasly International Genomics: A Sino-French Alliance of Scientists Building an Innovative Multi-Target Combination Drug R&D Platform
The concept of “modern traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)” has become increasingly familiar in recent years. It involves studying TCM through systematic approaches, conducting medical research under the guidance of systems theory, and leveraging high-tech innovations to transform the traditional TCM industry, thereby achieving the modernization of TCM.
Tasly is a leader in the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Its flagship product, Compound Danshen Dripping Pills, is the first compound TCM formulation globally to complete a U.S. FDA-regulated international, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, large-sample Phase III clinical trial. In late 2017, Tasly co-founded a joint venture with Pharnext, a well-known French publicly listed company specializing in network pharmacology, named the Tasly International Genomic Network Medicine Innovation Center. The center is dedicated to researching the mechanisms and developing complex pharmaceuticals, including TCM.
The traditional drug development model has primarily focused on identifying single disease targets and developing single-molecule drugs. However, this approach is increasingly revealing its limitations, characterized by escalating R&D costs and extremely low success rates. Scientists have discovered that the relationship between genes and diseases is not always straightforward; complex diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease are not caused solely by a single gene mutation, but rather result from the combined effects of multiple interacting factors.
Therefore, only by simultaneously regulating multiple targets can complex diseases be treated more effectively. Developing multi-target drugs and screening existing drug combinations to form combination therapies is the fastest approach. To identify effective combinations from the vast array of possible drug pairings, a comprehensive analysis of the multiple factors influencing the disease is essential.
Network pharmacology analyzes and mines large volumes of disease-related data to simulate the interaction networks among multiple molecules involved in disease pathogenesis. This approach helps identify key regulatory nodes, thereby facilitating the selection of corresponding drug combinations. Over the past decade, Pharnext has developed the PLEOTHERAPY platform for combination drug screening. By leveraging network pharmacology and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, this platform enables rapid identification of combination therapies for diseases, significantly shortening the drug development timeline and reducing costs.
Pharnext is also the only pharmaceutical company worldwide that utilizes AI and network pharmacology to screen for multi-component drugs, with efficacy demonstrated in Phase III clinical trials. Pharnext’s approach to multi-component drug development aligns closely with the R&D philosophy of Yan Xijun, founder of Tasly. Consequently, Tasly has exclusively licensed Pharnext’s R&D technologies globally through a joint venture to conduct mechanistic studies and develop multi-component drugs, including traditional Chinese medicines.
"Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), with its multi-component formulations, is a typical example of multi-target complex drugs. Its efficacy has been validated over time, making it a rich source for new drug development. The modernization of TCM relies on a clear elucidation of its mechanisms of action. However, given the diversity and complexity of TCM components, it is challenging to explain their interactions and underlying mechanisms. Leveraging Pharnext’s network pharmacology technology platform enables better analysis of the correlations between multiple TCM components and multiple disease targets, thereby facilitating in-depth exploration of TCM mechanisms of action. This contributes to the scientific application of TCM and promotes its international adoption. Meanwhile, TCM components also serve as a valuable resource for screening combination drug constituents," said Wang Wenjia, General Manager of Tasly International Gene Network Drug Innovation Center, in an interview with VCBeat.
In addition to contributing cutting-edge technologies and extensive R&D resources to the joint venture, Tasly and Pharnext have also integrated their top talent to form a core management and scientific research team.
Dr. Yan Xijun, Chairman and Founder of Tasly Group, serves as President. As a core R&D member behind Tasly’s flagship product, Compound Danshen Dripping Pills, he boasts over 25 years of extensive experience in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) research and development as well as corporate management. Dr. Yan Kaijing, Executive Chairman of Tasly Group, serves as Chairman of the Board. With a multidisciplinary background spanning computer science, finance, and TCM, he is the leading figure driving Tasly’s capitalization and internationalization.
Dr. Daniel Cohen, Co-founder and CEO of Pharnext, serves as Vice Chairman. A pioneer in modern genetics and human genomics, he led the completion of the first physical map of the human genome and co-founded several R&D institutions, including Millennium Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Takeda for $8.8 billion).
Dr. Wang Wenjia, the General Manager, engaged in R&D at Pharnext for many years and possesses a research background in genomic analysis, bioinformatics, and network pharmacology. Serguei Nabirotchkin, Chief Biology Officer at Pharnext, is an expert in genetics and systems biology. He previously served as the head of research at renowned institutions such as the Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow, Russia, and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), and currently serves as the Chief Scientist at Tasly International Gene.
Meanwhile, the expert committee also includes renowned experts such as Professor Han Jingyan, Dean of the School of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine at Peking University. The team comprises R&D professionals with extensive research and development experience from prestigious institutions such as Paris-Sud University (University of Paris XI) and Peking Union Medical College, with over 50% of its members holding doctoral degrees.
To more effectively advance R&D, Tasly International Gene has integrated Tasly’s modern traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) R&D platform with Pharnext’s network pharmacology R&D platform and multiple databases, leveraging cloud computing and AI technologies for optimization to create a novel cloud-based collaborative platform for drug discovery research—Xingdou Cloud.
By integrating and mining biological big data, the platform leverages network pharmacology to conduct in-depth analyses of diseases and drugs, constructing disease-drug interaction networks. It provides researchers with rapid access to integrated information on diseases and drugs, facilitating the exploration of the mechanisms of action of known traditional Chinese medicines (TCM), including the identification of key active ingredients, the discovery of new indications, and the development of potential small-molecule combination therapies.
The Xingdou Cloud Platform encompasses disease genomic data from a population of 250,000 individuals, over 7.8 million entries of systems pharmacology information on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and pharmacological data covering more than 20 million small-molecule compounds and their targets. It integrates over twenty databases containing vast amounts of literature and disease-related data. The platform features patented drug screening workflows and multiple analytical platforms supported by proprietary software copyrights, with cloud infrastructure technical support provided by Alibaba Cloud.
Unlike many AI-driven drug discovery companies, Tasly International Gene not only assists scientists in completing the closed-loop process of drug development but also integrates manual corrections by an experienced team of biologists and validation through its proprietary drug R&D experimental platform, thereby further ensuring the accuracy of results.
Currently, Tasly International Gene Company’s primary business model focuses on the agency and R&D of combination drugs. The company has secured the development rights for Pharnext’s innovative combination drug, PXT3003—the world’s first therapy for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT1A)—in the Greater China region. The drug has currently received priority review status and is preparing to initiate Phase III clinical trials.
In the field of combination drug development, the company focuses on cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and oncology areas. Leveraging the Xingdou Cloud platform and its experimental platforms, the company elucidates the mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and develops combination drugs based on existing medications. Currently, the company has been commissioned by Tasly to conduct mechanistic studies on several of its well-known TCM products and has initiated the development of combination drugs for cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, in the process of constructing disease-drug networks using Xingdou Cloud, new disease targets and biomarkers can be identified. Following experimental validation, these findings enable the development of novel compounds and companion diagnostics in collaboration with other new drug R&D platforms.