Crycision Bio Secures Millions in Angel Funding to Advance Membrane Protein-Targeted Drug Discovery Platform for Domestic Innovative Therapeutics

Image from the official website of Jingzhun Biology

On November 21, 2018, VCBeat learned that Jingzhun Biotech, a company focused on the early-stage R&D of novel drugs targeting challenging membrane proteins, announced the completion of its angel financing round. Led by CAS Star, this round raised several million RMB. The funds raised will continue to be invested in technology development, with the aim of establishing a world-class early-stage R&D platform for novel drugs targeting membrane proteins, thereby providing the most professional CRO services to clients both domestically and internationally.

Jingzhun Bio is a biotechnology company primarily engaged in basic scientific research, drug target discovery, drug molecule design and optimization, gene editing, and other related services. Its collaborators include pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, hospitals, and academic research institutions both in China and abroad.

Drug R&D has always been the core driver of the pharmaceutical industry’s advancement. As of 2017, there were approximately 14,872 drug development projects underway globally, with R&D expenditure estimated to reach $158 billion. Amid rapidly rising R&D costs and lengthening development cycles, pharmaceutical companies will increasingly strengthen their collaborations with CROs (Contract Research Organizations—academic or commercial scientific institutions and individuals that conduct all or part of the scientific or medical trials on behalf of clients during the drug development process in exchange for commercial compensation) to reduce R&D costs and improve efficiency.

Among these, targeted therapies constitute a critical component. It is reported that the targets of the vast majority of currently marketed drugs can be categorized into five classes: G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), ion channels, kinases, nuclear hormone receptors, and proteases. Of these, GPCRs and ion channels, which rank as the top two, are both membrane proteins. They not only regulate a wide array of physiological processes but also possess numerous druggable sites located on the cell surface. Due to their vital physiological functions and druggability, membrane protein drug targets have long been considered a prime area in pharmaceutical research and development.

Dr. Tan Jingquan, Founder and CEO of Jingzhun Biology, introduced that GPCRs constitute the largest family of membrane proteins in humans and are closely linked to cancer, inflammation, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic disorders, and central nervous system diseases. According to statistical data from the prestigious international academic journal Nature, there are a total of 475 FDA-approved drugs targeting GPCRs, accounting for 34% of all FDA-approved medications.

Over the past five years, the U.S. FDA has approved 69 new drugs targeting G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a figure that underscores the rapid progress in GPCR drug development. Due to the high development challenges posed by the inherent instability of these proteins, currently marketed drugs are concentrated on just 108 GPCR targets, making the field highly crowded and intensifying competition among overseas companies to unprecedented levels.

In contrast to the booming overseas market, few domestic companies have ventured into this field due to their relatively lagging technological capabilities.

An Rui, Investment Director at CAS Star, told VCBeat that Jingzhun Bio is a CRO company focused on the early-stage R&D of novel drugs targeting membrane proteins, and its team possesses extensive overseas academic and research experience.

During his graduate studies and research tenure, Dr. Jingquan Tan, the company’s founder, initiated fundamental research on membrane protein drug targets, collaborating with internationally renowned scholars such as his advisor Martin Caffrey and Nobel Laureate Brian Kobilka. Furthermore, Dr. Tan has led drug R&D technical service projects in collaboration with prominent overseas pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Amgen, Novartis, and Agios.

Anrui believes that the team’s world-leading capabilities in upstream drug target discovery, membrane protein drug target structure elucidation using Lipidic Cubic Phase (LCP) crystallization technology, and a comprehensive technology platform for lead compound development based on structural biology will constitute its core competitiveness.

The “13th Five-Year Plan for Special Projects in Biotechnology Innovation” (hereinafter referred to as the “Plan”), promulgated on May 10, 2018, explicitly listed drug design and new drug research and development as one of the key priority areas. The Plan emphasized “identifying potential drug targets based on discoveries in modern life sciences, integrating next-generation computing and artificial intelligence technologies with structural biology research findings, conducting research on computer-aided drug molecule design, and developing innovative drugs based on novel structures and new targets.” This is precisely the mission that Jingzhun Bio set out to accomplish at its inception.

At the current stage, Jingzhun Biology primarily focuses on CRO services, including membrane protein drug target discovery and validation, expression, and purification based on gene-editing technologies; crystal structure determination of drug targets or their complexes with small molecules; structure-based drug design; antigen epitope identification; structure-guided directed evolution of commercial enzymes; stable cell line development; animal model establishment; and other related services.

It is reported that the company currently provides technical services to pharmaceutical enterprises, biotechnology companies, and research institutes both domestically and internationally, having signed agreements with multiple clients, with service fees ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions.