Jiabei Biologics and Lunan Pharmaceutical Enter Strategic Collaboration on Innovative Oncology Antibody Program with Deal Value Exceeding RMB 100 Million

Recently, VCBeat learned that Jiabei Biotech and Lunan Pharmaceutical have entered into a strategic partnership. Under the terms of the agreement, Jiabei Biotech will license out an innovative antibody pipeline targeting a specific solid tumor to Lunan Pharmaceutical and assist in its development. Lunan Pharmaceutical will pay Jiabei Biotech an upfront payment of several million yuan, milestone payments, and a 2% sales royalty after product launch. The total value of the agreement exceeds RMB 100 million. Lunan Pharmaceutical will obtain full commercialization rights for the drug in China, while both parties will share international rights and seek global partners.

Jiabei Biotech is committed to becoming China’s leading CDMO technology service platform for novel biopharmaceuticals. Established in September 2017, the company is located in the Zhangjiang High-Tech Park in Shanghai. Zhang Wei, CEO and co-founder of Jiabei Biotech, has many years of work experience at WuXi Biologics, with over a decade of project management and R&D experience in antibody drugs and recombinant proteins. He has participated in the submission of clinical trial applications for more than 50 antibody drugs and recombinant proteins in China. Other team members come from well-known domestic biopharmaceutical CDMO companies and have extensive experience in the development and production of antibody drugs. In January 2019, Jiabei Biotech completed an angel round of financing exceeding RMB 10 million, invested by Shanghai Guohong Zhizhen Venture Capital Co., Ltd.

Jiabei Biotechnology boasts six core technology platforms: an innovative antibody drug screening and stable cell line development platform, a high-efficiency serum-free media development and optimization platform, a quality control and quality analysis platform, a large-scale high-efficiency cell culture process platform, a stable antibody formulation process platform, and a large-scale protein purification process platform.

Innovative drug screening, from project initiation to the acquisition of optimized candidate antibody drugs, typically requires 1–2 years. This period involves complex processes, including antigen and cell line preparation, high-throughput screening of hybridoma/phage antibody libraries, candidate antibody evaluation, and optimization. Among these, Jiabei Bio possesses multiple specialized antibody discovery platforms, including mouse hybridoma, rat hybridoma, and phage display libraries. Its proprietary host cells and high-expression plasmid systems can be stably integrated into the genome of mammalian cells, enabling robust expression of target products.

Meanwhile, the company has developed a unique serum-free, protein-free, and animal component-free cell culture medium for animal cells, maximizing protein yield. In batch/fed-batch cultures of CHO cells, cell density reaches 40×10⁶ cells/mL, with antibody expression levels of 4–8 g/L. Furthermore, the company possesses advanced analytical and testing technologies for monoclonal antibodies, along with a comprehensive QA/QC system, thereby ensuring the quality of both processes and products.

“We can provide pharmaceutical companies with one-stop technical services for antibody drug screening and manufacturing process development,” said Zhang Wei. In addition to its specialized antibody development platform, Jiabei Bio possesses its own upstream R&D and pilot-scale laboratories, a pilot production workshop, and downstream purification process laboratories. The company offers end-to-end technical services spanning from “DNA to clinical trial authorization,” including comprehensive CMC documentation for glycosylated proteins, and supplies all pharmaceutical data required for regulatory submissions in the United States and the European Union.

Lunan Pharmaceutical is a comprehensive pharmaceutical group integrating the production, research and development, and sales of traditional Chinese medicines, chemical drugs, and biological products. It owns seven subsidiaries, including Lunan Houpu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Lunan Better Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Shandong New Era Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and Lunan New Era Medicine Co., Ltd. Lunan Pharmaceutical Group boasts extensive experience in preclinical studies, clinical trials, and regulatory submissions. The company has established a quality assurance system aligned with international quality supervision standards set by ICH, FDA, and EDQM. All its dosage forms and product varieties have passed certification under the new national Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards. With over 10,000 employees, the group achieves an annual output value of RMB 10 billion.

Lunan Pharmaceutical’s marketed products cover more than ten therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, the respiratory system, the digestive system, the nervous system, ophthalmology, and oncology. Among these, the Xinkang series and the anticancer drug Weikangda have each achieved annual sales exceeding RMB 1 billion. The company currently has more than ten Class I innovative biologics in development.

Currently, Jiabei Bio has established research collaborations with universities and institutions such as East China University of Science and Technology, Fudan University, and the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The company has assisted clients in securing over 50 clinical trial approvals in China and three in the United States or Australia. Jiabei Bio has also initiated a new round of financing while seeking third-party partners to jointly develop international markets for innovative collaborative antibody drugs.