3D Medicines Announces Four Strategic Initiatives Following RMB 146 Million Series D Financing

On December 8, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and 3D Medicines signed an agreement for a new drug collaboration project. This partnership represents a cooperative development and commercialization agreement between the two parties regarding a Class I innovative drug derived from traditional Chinese medicine, developed by Professor Lei Haimin’s team at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. Reportedly, the total value of the agreement exceeds RMB 64 million. This marks a significant initiative announced by 3D Medicines following its fourth round of financing.

Signing Ceremony

Not long ago, 3D Medicines Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “3D Medicines”), a company focused on precision oncology, announced that it had completed its Series D financing round of RMB 146 million in the second quarter of 2015. The round involved six institutional investors, and all funds have been received in full.

It is reported that Fangsheng Capital, the lead investor in the Series C round, has once again led the financing in collaboration with a fund co-founded by Xiong Minghua, former CTO of Tencent. In addition, Tasly, a renowned pharmaceutical company, and CMG International, a subsidiary of China Minsheng Investment Corp. (CMIG), China’s largest private investment firm, have also joined the round. To date, 3D Medicines has secured cumulative investments amounting to hundreds of millions of RMB from 14 well-known domestic venture capital firms.

Over the past year, “precision medicine” has become a widely recognized buzzword both in China and abroad. At the beginning of this year, President Obama announced the launch of the Precision Medicine Initiative. China Central Television (CCTV) has featured multiple special reports on the subject this year, highlighting that China is currently formulating a strategic plan for “precision medicine,” which is highly likely to be included as a key special project under the 13th Five-Year Plan.

However, the general public’s understanding of precision medicine remains hazy. Sinocare, which has frequently appeared in the public eye recently, is one of the earliest companies in China to practice the concept of precision medicine and the only institution in the country that employs precision therapies for comprehensive cancer management throughout the entire care continuum. VCBeat conducted an in-depth investigation into Sinocare, aiming to lift the veil on precision medicine by examining its business model, current development status, and future trends.

3D Medicines Development History

3DMed Precision Medicine Group (3DMed) was established in December 2010 and is headquartered in Shanghai. Upholding the vision of “becoming an innovative leader in the field of precision oncology,” 3DMed has remained dedicated to precision cancer medicine since its inception. Over the past five years, it has grown into a precision medicine group featuring a 2,400-square-meter new drug R&D center and two independent clinical laboratories in Shanghai and Shenyang, totaling 3,000 square meters.Its three subsidiaries focus on precision cancer prevention, precision cancer treatment, and precision new drug development, respectively.

Through years of investment in research and development, 3D Medicines has established the world’s largest platform for primary liver cancer cell banks, next-generation sequencing (NGS), and precision medicine big data. By integrating big data on healthy individuals’ genomic information, patients’ tumor genomic profiles, and drug action mechanisms, the company supports the growth of its three core business segments.

Currently, 3D Medicines has established collaborations with over 100 Grade A tertiary hospitals in China. Its expert team, comprising more than 300 oncologists, delivers precision medical services to diverse patient populations.

Sizdi’s team of scientists comprises senior researchers from prestigious institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Rochester, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the University of Zurich in Switzerland, as well as from internationally renowned pharmaceutical companies. On average, they possess more than 10 years of experience in oncology research.

As of now, 3D Medicines has three drug candidates in its pipeline, which are expected to sequentially enter the clinical trial application and Phase I trial stages from 2017 to 2018, with anticipated market launch between 2021 and 2023.

3D Medicines Development History

Seeing Clearly the Future Direction of the Industry: 3DMed’s Financing Path from RMB 500,000 to RMB 146 Million

Xiong Lei, founder of 3D Medicines, studied at the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He began researching the mechanisms of tumorigenesis in 2000 during his doctoral studies. After earning his Ph.D., he remained committed to scientific research and pursued postdoctoral work at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. His primary research focus was on high-throughput target screening using RNA interference technology, employing a “systems biology” strategy to guide the development and validation of drug targets.

In 2010, Xiong Lei anticipated that the cost of gene sequencing technology would drop significantly within the next three to five years. He recognized that this reduction in cost would accelerate the adoption of the technology and have a profound impact on the field of personalized oncology care. In November of the same year, Xiong Lei interrupted his postdoctoral research in Switzerland and returned to China with RMB 500,000 in startup capital to found 3D Medicines Inc., a company dedicated to precision medicine. With a clear strategic direction, this entrepreneurial venture focused on leveraging tumor genomics research to develop novel anti-cancer drugs and advance precision medicine.

500,000 yuan in seed funding is not a substantial amount for a startup, particularly one primarily engaged in new drug development; consequently, the entire sum was exhausted within less than three months.

During that period, Xiong Lei’s most critical task was to secure investment as quickly as possible. The biggest challenge he faced was that many investors lacked a clear understanding of precision oncology and gene sequencing, requiring him to promote the concept of precision medicine while seeking funding. Meanwhile, the lengthy return-on-investment horizon for new drug development deterred investors who expected rapid financial returns.

Two years later, Xiong Lei secured his first round of financing, amounting to RMB 10 million. This occurred in 2012, precisely during the most challenging phase of his team’s entrepreneurial journey.

This investment comes from Liu Mulong, Chairman of Xiantong Capital. Due to their shared vision for the development of personalized diagnostics and precision drug development, Liu Mulong and Xiong Lei decided to collaborate during their initial meeting.

Since 2013, the number of domestic genetic testing companies in China has increased significantly, leading to gradual changes in the investment landscape for precision medicine. In 2014, the domestic investment environment underwent a qualitative transformation; during that year, 3D Medicines secured two consecutive rounds of venture capital financing.

In late January 2015, after U.S. President Barack Obama announced the Precision Medicine Initiative in his State of the Union address, precision medicine began to gain widespread acceptance. At that time, 3D Medicines started to attract attention and favor from the capital market.

The recently completed Series D financing round, totaling RMB 146 million, was again led by existing investors.

Xu Meng from CM International, a participant in this round of investment, has publicly stated that 3D Medicines was able to foresee the future of precision medicine at its early startup stage. Through continuous investments over multiple rounds in the past few years, the company has made substantial progress, far outpacing competitors still embroiled in fierce competition within the genetic testing sector. This is one of the primary reasons why CM International holds a favorable view of the company. CM International looks forward to 3D Medicines’ business model leading the future of precision medicine in China and even globally.

Following the completion of this funding round, 3D Medicines will continue to strengthen its tripartite business model by undertaking initiatives in the following four areas:

1) Advance the preclinical development and clinical trial applications for several existing precision oncology drugs:Accelerate collaborations with domestic and international research institutions and pharmaceutical companies, integrate global compound resources, and achieve translation through a biomarker-driven drug development platform.

2) National Strategic Layout for Precision Medicine Services:Launched China’s largest precision medicine Basket Trial and Umbrella Trial across dozens of Grade A tertiary hospitals nationwide, advancing strategic collaborations with hospitals throughout the country;

3) Implementation and Promotion of Precision Tumor Prevention Services:Leveraging the risk prediction models and cancer prevention systems established with support from previous rounds of investment, we collaborate with Grade-A tertiary hospitals and health examination centers to implement the cancer prevention framework through preventive care clinics. This initiative delivers personalized specialized cancer screening services and collects health prevention data from high-risk populations, thereby further refining the prediction models.

4) Accelerate the development of big data networks:Build a tumor data network platform to break down barriers between prevention data, treatment data, and new drug development, accelerating the discovery and translation of cancer biomarkers.

Precision New Drug Development: Accelerating New Drug Development with a Biomarker-Driven Model

It is understood that in the traditional new drug development model, due to the high failure rate of clinical trials, when accounting for the cost losses resulting from clinical trial failures, clinical trial costs account for more than 80% of total new drug development costs.

Therefore, how to improve the success rate of clinical trials is an important issue in the new drug development process.

In recent years, leading multinational pharmaceutical companies, including Genentech, Novartis, and Pfizer, have adopted a biomarker-driven model for new drug development. This approach identifies biomarkers that define the patient populations most likely to respond to a compound based on its mechanism of action prior to clinical trials. By doing so, it enables the precise design of clinical trial inclusion criteria, optimizes trial protocols, accelerates trial timelines, and significantly enhances the efficiency and success rate of new drug development. In essence, this strategy leverages individual patient data and big data analytics to identify personalized therapeutic indicators, addressing the specific medication needs of each patient.

As for how to identify biomarkers, 3DMed has also found a way through its explorations.

As early as 2012, after securing its first round of venture capital financing, 3D Medicines embarked on building a platform for the development of novel oncology drugs. The initial step taken was the primary culture of tumor cells. After overcoming numerous challenges related to technology and funding, 3D Medicines independently developed a high-success-rate technique for primary tumor cell culture and established the world’s largest primary liver cancer cell bank within two years. Currently, it houses over one thousand primary liver cancer cell lines.

The drug discovery platform built on this technological achievement has become 3SBio’s “proprietary weapon” for new drug development—evaluating drugs using a large panel of primary cell lines is equivalent to simulating a Phase III clinical trial with cells from hundreds of patients in the preclinical stage.

These cell lines each possess distinct mutational profiles. Drug sensitivity data obtained from these cell lines can, to some extent, reflect the responses of patients harboring identical mutations to the corresponding drugs. Through such in vitro cellular assays, mutation-based biomarkers associated with drug efficacy can be identified. This approach not only guides patient enrollment in clinical trials but also provides a preliminary estimate of the population response rate to the investigational drug among patients with liver cancer.

This clinical development model, by precisely selecting the target patient population, not only holds promise for significantly improving drug development success rates but also facilitates obtaining FDA Breakthrough Therapy designation, thereby substantially shortening the duration of clinical trials.

3D Medicines Adopts a Biomarker-Driven Model for Precision Novel Drug Development

Integrating global compound resources is another advantage of 3D Medicines. Dr. Zhaolong Gong, who oversees new drug development at 3D Medicines, previously served as a senior new drug review officer at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and as Senior Vice President at BeiGene. He possesses extensive expertise in international drug registration regulations and new drug development processes. Currently, 3D Medicines collaborates with several renowned domestic and international research institutions and multinational pharmaceutical companies, including the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), to accelerate the screening and translation of global compound resources on its R&D platform.

Through collaboration with the NIH, 3D Medicines is able to explore the potential of drug repurposing among thousands of approved and investigational pharmaceutical compounds worldwide. The primary advantage of repurposed drugs lies in their extensive history of clinical use and comprehensive safety profiles. In the United States, these drugs can be developed via the FDA’s 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway, which allows for a relatively shorter clinical development timeline.

This includes the latest collaboration reached with Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, which represents another successful integration of China’s rich natural drug resources with 3DMed’s drug R&D platform. Professor Lei Haimin’s team, a partner in this project, identified lead compounds derived from active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine through preliminary research. Furthermore, leveraging 3DMed’s drug development platform, they initially identified biomarkers with predictive value for therapeutic efficacy, which will significantly enhance the efficiency and success rate of subsequent clinical development. The compound has been granted invention patents in China and authorized invention patents in the United States, holding great promise to become China’s first Class I innovative drug with independent intellectual property rights in the field of liver cancer.

Furthermore, Tasly, which participated in this round of investment in 3D Medicines, is also a strategic investor in the pharmaceutical sector. Tasly stated that the two parties have reached a cooperation agreement based on their shared understanding of the precision medicine model. Leveraging their complementary strengths in drug development, they will further deepen their strategic partnership. Under this “diagnostics + drug development” collaborative model, 3D Medicines gains access to genomic data through its diagnostic services and employs a biomarker-driven approach to complete preclinical drug development; meanwhile, Tasly brings extensive experience in clinical drug development and marketing. Together, the two companies aim to co-develop precise anti-tumor therapies.

Precision Medicine: Developing Targeted Drug Therapy Plans for Patients Based on Gene Sequencing

Beyond its long-term goal of developing oncology drugs, 3D Medicines is also gradually influencing clinical practice in precision medicine. Its precision medicine services involve genotypic profiling of patients’ cancer tissues to assist clinicians in selecting optimal treatment regimens.

In the history of medicine, practice began with empirical medicine, where physicians relied on personal experience for judgment, and there were no standardized diagnostic criteria. With the advancement of modern medicine, physicians have adopted clinical practice guidelines as references, achieving a level of population-based treatment. However, FDA statistics indicate that the current clinical efficacy rate of oncology drugs remains very low, at approximately 20%. Even when adhering to the principles of evidence-based medicine and classifying tumors for treatment based on histopathological types, the majority of patients still fail to derive benefit.

As cancer is a disease caused by the continuous accumulation of genetic mutations, the differences observed among different patients, known as tumor heterogeneity, are also evident at the genetic level. Precision medicine based on next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology holds promise for addressing this challenge. By incorporating molecular genotyping into cancer treatment, patients can receive more tailored targeted therapy regimens.

3D Medicines is currently conducting this business. For each cancer patient, high-throughput sequencing is performed on tumor tissue samples to identify driver gene mutations that play a key role in tumorigenesis, including analyses of point mutations, copy number variations, and gene fusions. Based on the identified genetic mutations, 3D Medicines leverages the correlation between drug databases and genomic big data to search for FDA-approved drugs targeting the specific gene or its molecular signaling pathways, as well as drugs currently in clinical trials, thereby providing treatment recommendations to attending physicians.

3D Medicines’ Innovative Precision Medicine Concept Transforms the Landscape of Cancer Treatment

Since the launch of 3D Medicines’ precision therapy initiatives, a substantial number of cases have been accumulated, with many patients deriving clinical benefit. The Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital was among the first institutions to engage in collaborative clinical research on tumor precision therapy with 3D Medicines. Professor Jiang Xiaoqing from this hospital utilized the 3D Medicines precision therapy panel to conduct tumor genomic testing on 48 patients with advanced biliary tract tumors. Compared with the conventional chemotherapy group, the group receiving treatment guided by genomic test results demonstrated a significant prolongation of Overall Survival (OS). This finding suggests that precision therapy will play a prominent role in the future management of malignant tumors, particularly for cancer types with poor prognosis and a lack of effective therapeutic options.

One 26-year-old female patient in the trial left a deep impression. She was diagnosed with advanced gallbladder cancer that was already inoperable at the time of detection. Due to the high malignancy of the tumor and the poor prognosis associated with conventional treatment regimens, the patient underwent Singlera Genomics’ OncoPanel sequencing. Following auxiliary genomic variant analysis, a targeted therapy was identified, which proved highly effective and has extended her survival by 10 months—a significant benefit for both the patient and her family.

At the 2015 National Conference on Frontiers in Clinical Oncology Diagnosis and Treatment, Professor Jiang Xiaoqing presented the results of China’s first umbrella trial conducted in patients with advanced biliary tract cancers.

Following this round of financing, 3D Medicines will collaborate with physicians at China’s Grade A tertiary hospitals to conduct large-scale precision medicine Basket Trials and Umbrella Trials, advancing its strategic layout across hospitals nationwide.

Precision Prevention: Establishing a Risk Assessment and Cancer Prevention System Tailored for the Chinese Population

Since 2014, 3D Medicines has established Yilang Health Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Yilang”) to provide cancer risk assessment and precision prevention services for healthy individuals. Yilang is building a scientifically rigorous cancer prevention system to identify individuals at high risk of cancer among the general population. By collaborating with medical examination institutions to offer specialized cancer screening services for these high-risk groups, and integrating continuous health management, Yilang aims to improve the early detection rate of cancer. Currently, Yilang’s cancer prevention services cover common and frequently occurring cancers, including breast cancer, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, and gastric cancer.

Leveraging its advantages in service philosophy, testing technology, and personnel quality, Yilang Health was selected in 2015 as the sole national strategic partner of the All-China Women’s Federation’s Female Tumor Prevention Fund. In this capacity, it assists in promoting the Fund’s initiatives in science popularization education, research projects, and preventive screening. Notably, the “China Breast Cancer BRCA1/2 Registry Project” was officially launched in June this year. This project employs a multicenter, open-label, cross-sectional study design to investigate germline mutations in BRCA1/2. It represents the first large-scale, systematic, and comprehensive study of the variations, distribution, and disease risk associated with the hereditary susceptibility genes BRCA1/2 in Chinese families with high-risk familial breast cancer. The project aims to establish a mutational landscape of BRCA1/2 genes in hereditary breast cancer in China, guide early screening for healthy individuals, and develop health risk management models. Yilang actively supports and steadily advances the implementation of the project. Currently, 39 centers across China have been selected, with more than 41 principal investigators (PIs) participating. Patient recruitment has commenced at all centers, and the project is expected to last one year.

Supported by several rounds of prior investment, Yilang has established a rigorous and comprehensive cancer risk assessment model. Following this round of financing, the next step will focus on promoting the implementation of precise cancer prevention services by partnering with medical examination centers at Grade A tertiary hospitals to deliver personalized specialized cancer screening services. The preventive care clinic is a crucial component and innovative initiative in Yilang’s practice of its cancer prevention system. In October 2015, the Tongji-Yilang Breast Cancer Prevention Clinic was officially inaugurated at Tongji Hospital affiliated with Tongji University in Shanghai. As China’s first specialized breast center primarily focused on preventive screening, the preventive care clinic is poised to implement services such as screening, diagnosis, treatment, and continuous monitoring for individuals at high risk of cancer.

Comprehensive and Precise Management of Breast Cancer Through Preventive Outpatient ClinicsThis system enables comprehensive, precision management of breast cancer. It begins with Yilang’s thorough analysis of individual genetic risk factors (via full-length sequencing and analysis of genetically susceptible genes) and environmental risk factors, generating a personalized risk assessment. Based on this assessment, a specialized tumor prevention screening protocol is formulated. Specialized screening items include 3D color Doppler ultrasound, MRI, and full-field digital mammography, which can be completed at Yilang-affiliated preventive outpatient clinics nationwide. These clinics assign senior radiologists to perform the examinations, allowing for in-depth evaluation of suspicious lesions. Physician consultations are available when necessary to avoid missed or misdiagnoses. Health data generated from these specialized screenings are integrated into Yilang’s health records, where professional medical experts provide dedicated health management services, including continuous report interpretation, preventive counseling, and lifestyle guidance, thereby facilitating early detection and intervention for tumors. By offering specialized screening and dedicated health management, this tumor prevention system can achieve a tumor prevention success rate of over 95%.

Following this round of financing, 3D Medicines will further accelerate the implementation of its cancer prevention system in collaboration with Grade A tertiary hospitals and physical examination centers across China. It is reported that the company may next engage in in-depth cooperation with several large Grade A tertiary hospitals in first-tier cities.

Big Data-Driven Precision Medicine: Prevention and Diagnosis as Data Entry Points, with New Drug Development Demonstrating Unique Value

Effective precision medicine must be built on large-scale samples and data analysis. Only companies that possess big data on population genomics can ultimately hold the discourse power in precision medicine. 3D Medicines recognized this insight early on. Through the development of its three core business segments, it has continuously accumulated genetic big data with Chinese characteristics and established big data-driven precision treatment models.

During the tumor prevention phase, 3D Medicines has accumulated risk data on high-risk populations through multiple rounds of early-stage financing, focusing on establishing a database of genetic susceptibility mutation sites characteristic of East Asian populations. Furthermore, by deeply mining individual health big data—including genomic information, physiological status, medical history, living environment, and lifestyle—the company has developed a tumor risk assessment and prediction model tailored to the Chinese population. The application of big data analytics, which fully accounts for ethnic and regional differences and encompasses comprehensive genetic and non-genetic metrics, will enable more precise tumor prevention.

During the tumor treatment phase, data accumulation is particularly crucial for rare gene mutation types. Because gene mutations in tumor cells vary across individuals and different developmental stages, and the distribution of mutation proportions exhibits a long-tail effect, with most driver mutations occurring at very low frequencies. If these rare mutation cases encountered in clinical oncology practice are scattered among individual physicians, it becomes difficult for them to accurately identify the gene mutation types, let alone design appropriate medication regimens.

3D Medicines is promoting precision oncology diagnosis and treatment on a large scale across China. As an independent third-party institution, it breaks through the limitations of regional and individual medical institutions by collecting, managing, and utilizing data on rare and sporadic tumor gene mutations. Through big data analytics, it develops tumor models based on various molecular subtypes (gene mutations) and establishes a comprehensive database linking mutations to therapeutic agents. Within this database, rare tumor mutations become less rare as they are continuously collected and categorized. In the future, for new cases, the most suitable molecular subtype and corresponding targeted therapies and treatment strategies can be rapidly identified from the database.

Prevention and diagnosis serve as data entry points, highlighting the unique value of new oncology drug development. This makes it possible to develop targeted therapies for specific, precisely segmented patient populations. 3D Medicines has invested heavily in building a R&D platform that is now fully prepared, representing the key value driver for introducing global compound resources and leveraging internationally leading translational platforms.

3D Medicines’ three core business segments are closely interconnected, leveraging operations to generate data and using data to enhance operations. This comprehensive, data-driven business model addresses the full spectrum of oncology care needs and is highly distinctive. Over five years of development, this approach has proven to be a highly efficient strategy.

Oncology management is entering the era of precision medicine, with big data serving as the core driver; the collection and analysis of precise data provide the fundamental momentum for the advancement of precision medicine.

According to Xiong Lei, “3DMed’s goal is to transform China’s substantial disease burden into a massive big data model for precision oncology, thereby making cancer drug development and treatment highly precise. This ensures that every patient receives the right medication and that pharmaceutical companies can recruit the appropriate patients for clinical trials. The high price of oncology drugs is not due to high production costs, but rather to the extremely high failure rate in drug development. Therefore, once the success rate of R&D improves, even if targeting only a small, precisely defined patient population, R&D costs will decrease significantly, leading to a corresponding reduction in the price of oncology drugs for patients after market launch.”

Xiong Lei stated, “We aspire to build a great and respected company that upholds the philosophy of ‘Science Changes the World,’ focuses on oncology, creates an ecosystem for precision medicine, and contributes to human health.”

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