Suriothera Completes Tens of Millions RMB Pre-A Financing to Advance ATTACK Platform for Targeting Cancers Lacking Known Receptors

VCBeat New Medicine learned at the earliest opportunity,Surio Therapeutics, an innovative drug R&D company, completes tens of millions of yuan in Pre-A financing.This funding round was co-led by Orient Fortune and Westlake Photonics, with participation from Deshi Capital and Hangzhou Xihu Kechuang Equity Investment Co., Ltd.This round of financing will be primarily used for preclinical studies and clinical trial applications for the lead compound, as well as pipeline expansion.

Surio Therapeutics, established in 2019, is dedicated to the research and development of innovative targeted cancer therapies. The company’s team comprises numerous scientists who have returned to China after studying or working abroad.Professor Cheng Jianjun, the scientific founder, currently serves as the Dean of the School of Engineering and Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Westlake University. With over 20 years of experience in the research and development of nanomedicine and biomaterials, he has co-led or participated in the development of two anti-tumor nanodrugs that have entered Phase II clinical trials.

Surio Therapeutics Commercially Develops Unique and Original Active Tissue Labeling Targeting Technology(Active Tissue Targeting via Anchored ClicK chemistry, abbreviated as ATTACK), ATTACK is a broad-spectrum active differential delivery platform technology. It can be used for the delivery of various drug combinations and the treatment of different disease indications, effectively enabling tumor targeting in the absence of known specific receptors. Addressing unmet clinical needs in the field of oncology, ATTACK technology holds significant therapeutic potential. In addition to its applications in tumor therapy and diagnostics, ATTACK, as a technological platform, also demonstrates substantial application potential in the targeting, diagnosis, and treatment of non-oncological diseases.

Amid intensifying competition in the oncology therapeutics landscape, Surio Therapeutics is forging a new path by pioneering targeted drug development in an entirely different arena. VCBeat News spoke with Professor Cheng Jianjun to explore how Surio Therapeutics is carving out a differentiated strategy through its highly innovative platform technology.

From antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) to PD-1 monoclonal antibodies and further to CAR-T therapy, targeted drugs, immunotherapies, and cell therapies have achieved remarkable success in cancer treatment. These advancements have driven the rapid development of oncology therapeutics and now account for approximately 60% of the global cancer drug market.

However, it is worth noting that these groundbreaking innovative cancer-targeting technologies actually benefit only 10% of patients. Effective treatments remain lacking for specific subtypes of ovarian cancer, breast cancer, glioma, pancreatic cancer, and other tumors.

“We must clearly recognize that many tumors can currently only be treated with conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy,” pointed out Cheng Jianjun, noting that these traditional therapies have limited efficacy and invariably cause significant collateral damage to the patient. Furthermore, “Many new technologies have achieved breakthroughs when targeting known molecular targets; however, nearly 60%–70% of tumors lack known druggable targets. Treating these tumors through revolutionary approaches poses significant technical challenges.”

These 60%-70% of cancer cases are, in fact, types that are difficult to treat with existing targeted drugs, highlighting certain limitations of currently available targeted cancer therapies.

Currently, targeted cancer therapies are dominated by large-molecule antibody drugs and small-molecule targeted agents. According to Cheng Jianjun, antibody drugs typically exert their effects by targeting specific receptors (known targets) on the surface of cancer cells. However, the number of specific tumor surface receptors currently identified is very limited, and among those known, only a minority are present in tumors at levels sufficient to achieve significant targeting efficacy. This restricts the range of tumor types that can be treated with monoclonal antibody drugs. Meanwhile, many aggressive cancers cannot be treated using existing passive targeting technologies.

Therefore, adopting a completely new design paradigm for cancer therapy represents a breakthrough and holds greater promise of benefiting patients with cancers that currently have no available treatments.

In 2019, Cheng Jianjun co-founded Surio Therapeutics with Dr. Cai Kaimin, Sun Ying, and Dr. Zhang Jinye, aiming to develop novel cancer-targeting technologies. Like Cheng Jianjun, the other three co-founders have accumulated extensive experience in new drug research and development and management both in China and abroad, possessing cutting-edge insights in technology development, corporate operations, and commercialization.

At its inception, Surio Therapeutics did not follow the then-popular trend of cancer targeted therapies in the industry. Instead, it focused on the forward-looking fields of glycometabolism and click chemistry, aiming to commercialize its research achievements that had been under development for many years.This achievement enables cancer targeting through bioorthogonal reactions and click chemistry, upgrading current passive targeting technologies to active targeting, thereby providing cancer patients with a low-cost, low-side-effect, highly effective, and broadly differentiated therapeutic solution.

“The technology we have developed currently does not exist on the market; it is a completely new therapeutic approach,” said Cheng Jianjun.

Surio Therapeutics’ novel therapeutic approach is the Active Tumor Tissue Labeling and Targeting Technology—ATTACK technology.Cheng Jianjun stated, “The innovation of the ATTACK technology lies in two steps: first, we pioneered the creation of artificial targets; second, the new drug we developed can be likened to a ‘small-molecule ADC.’”

Surio Therapeutics creates novel artificial targets based on bioorthogonal click chemistry targeting cellular glucose metabolism.The pioneering work on bioorthogonal click chemistry, as a significant extension of click chemistry reactions, was jointly awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Glycans are oligosaccharides attached to cell wall peptides, proteins, and lipids, and can be used to selectively observe cell types, including tumor cells. Bioorthogonal click chemistry has been proven to be an important tool for understanding glycan localization, biological functions, and structures. Therefore, if glycometabolic precursors such as azides that are available for bioorthogonal click reactions in cells are released, the cells can be labeled and tracked.

Existing studies indicate that various glycan receptors on the tumor surface, particularly those associated with immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment, exhibit diverse biological functions. This suggests that bioorthogonal chemistry based on cellular glycometabolism offers new possibilities for targeted cancer drug delivery.

Surio Therapeutics leverages glycochemical metabolism to harness the activity of intracellular tumor enzyme targets. By utilizing glycometabolic pathways, it enables the expression of artificial receptors on the cell surface, effectively converting hard-to-target intracellular tumor targets into new, specific, and accessible targets on the cell surface.

“A series of non-lethal targets within tumor cells had previously garnered little market attention. Although these targets are sometimes present in tumor cells, inhibiting them does not effectively suppress tumor growth. However, we know that these targets are overexpressed within tumors; it is just that there have been no effective means to leverage them. The value of our technology lies in converting these ‘undruggable’ targets into actionable ones, thereby creating entirely new therapeutic targets,” said Cheng Jianjun.

This strategy effectively shifts the paradigm from passive to active intervention. Currently, cancer targeted therapies on the market primarily target antigens naturally expressed by tumor cells. In contrast, Surio Therapeutics has achieved high-level expression of artificial non-natural glycan targets on the surface of cancer cells, thereby enabling highly specific locking and targeted therapy against these artificial targets. Since bioorthogonal reactions ensure that other endogenous biochemical processes in living cells or tissues remain undisturbed, they provide a robust safety guarantee for Surio Therapeutics’ creation of artificial targets.

Creating novel targets is merely the first step; the application of click chemistry in the second stage of new drug development complements the first, and only through the synergistic coordination of both steps can true cancer-targeted therapy be achieved.

Click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry based on cellular glycometabolism jointly received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2022. Click chemistry aims to achieve rapid and reliable chemical synthesis of diverse molecules by assembling small modular units. Its significance lies in transforming traditional organic chemistry into an operable process chemistry, simplifying complex organic reactions to enable precise, one-to-one synthesis of new molecules. Currently, click chemistry is widely applied in fields such as bioconjugation and biological labeling, but mostly in applications like in vitro detection, cell labeling, or local targeting. According to the company, Surio Therapeutics is the world’s only biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing and utilizing click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry based on cellular glycometabolism to achieve selective tumor labeling and targeted therapy through systemic administration.

Surio Therapeutics has developed a fully small-molecule-based conjugate drug, with technical characteristics similar to the currently popular antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). While ADCs are antibody-drug conjugates, Surio has designed a novel therapeutic agent composed of a small-molecule targeting head linked to a small-molecule toxin. Through click chemistry, this construct targets synthetic small-molecule receptors, enabling specific recognition and killing of tumor cells.

Cheng Jianjun emphasized that while drug development constitutes the second step, its efficacy relies on support from the artificial targets developed in the first step. “Once the artificial targets and the subsequent drug development are jointly validated for success, the company will be able to pursue multi-target development and drug combinations. The ATTACK technology will then have the opportunity to unlock its full potential, with the possibility of expanding its therapeutic applications from oncology to other medical fields.”

When Surio Therapeutics was first established, China’s biopharmaceutical industry was still on the path of fast follow. Although the domestic entrepreneurial atmosphere and financing environment were extremely vibrant, Surio’s entirely different approach to oncology therapy struggled to gain market acceptance. Due to the lack of comparable overseas counterparts, it was common for investors to fail to understand the ATTACK technology, and they were unwilling to take on significant investment risks.

As time has passed and China’s biopharmaceutical industry has developed, domestic tolerance for innovative technologies has grown increasingly high, enabling Surio Therapeutics to gain greater support and recognition. Prior to this round of financing, Surio successfully completed two funding rounds in 2019 and 2021.

“Therefore, it takes time for the market to accept a completely new technology, and even now, not everyone is convinced,” said Cheng Jianjun.

Surio Therapeutics has now embarked on a sound development trajectory. Leveraging its proprietary ATTACK platform, the company’s product pipeline has undergone initial validation in triple-negative breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The pipeline is currently in the CMC R&D testing phase, with the design and implementation of toxicology studies scheduled for completion in the second half of this year. Surio Therapeutics plans to submit Investigational New Drug (IND) applications for the relevant pipelines in 2024.

Meanwhile, Surio Therapeutics is further strengthening its patent layout. The ATTACK platform and its related technologies currently hold two internationally protected patents. Over the next two years, the company will file a series of patents globally for drugs developed based on the ATTACK platform, establishing a robust intellectual property portfolio.

The path to new drug development is long, and Surio Therapeutics will face many more challenges. As a novel cancer-targeted therapy, the ATTACK technology requires further exploration by Surio Therapeutics in several key areas: how to achieve precise and specific expression of targets on the cell surface, how to accurately control the level of target expression, and how to optimize each step to ensure effective chemical reactions.

Nevertheless, clinical feedback has been the driving force behind their continued perseverance. “Clinicians are highly interested in our technology; they had never heard of it before and were unaware of its existence. Therefore, they are eagerly anticipating the successful validation and application outcomes of this technology. They have even provided us with suggestions on expanding its applications to other fields, including non-oncology areas such as anti-infective therapies, liver diseases, and autoimmune disorders.”

Surio Therapeutics’ novel innovations are gaining accelerated market recognition, and its journey of exploration will continue.

Mr. Xu Xiao, Founding Partner of Oriental Fortune CapitalIt stated: “Target discovery is one of the core challenges in the development of tumor-targeted drugs. The founding team of Surio Therapeutics has achieved the construction of artificial targets based on the principles of glycochemistry, representing an original innovative technology with significant academic and clinical implications globally. Targeting this artificial target, Surio Therapeutics utilizes click chemistry technology to design drug-targeted delivery products, which hold promise for effectively treating cancers with limited clinical treatment options, such as ovarian cancer and triple-negative breast cancer. The two-step therapy of ‘artificial target + click chemistry’ is a platform technology that can be horizontally expanded to multiple cancer types, offering substantial market potential.”

Mr. Lin Shanghan, General Manager of West Lake Photonicsstated: “In the biopharmaceutical sector, Westlake Photonics focuses on innovative technological applications and solutions. The global targeted therapy market currently exceeds $100 billion, yet at least 60% of cancer patients are ineligible for or do not benefit from targeted therapies due to the absence of suitable targets. Surio Therapeutics is addressing this segment of cancers lacking overexpressed receptors, thereby fulfilling unmet clinical needs with significant market potential. Leveraging its platform advantages, Westlake Photonics is helping scientific teams translate cutting-edge, Nobel Prize-winning technologies into therapeutic applications, accelerating the industrialization of biopharmaceutical technologies in China that possess core intellectual property rights.”

Mr. Guo Jia, Partner at Deshi Capitalstated: “Surio Therapeutics is an exceptionally professional team led by world-class experts in the fields of glycochemistry and drug delivery, and is one of the pioneers in the commercial application of click chemistry for drug delivery. We believe that Surio Therapeutics’ all-small-molecule-based ATTACK active tissue-targeting platform possesses unique technical advantages as well as broad scalability, holding promise for continuously generating numerous breakthrough therapies in cancer and other disease areas.”

Ms. Shen Lifen, Chairman of Hangzhou Xihu Kechuang Equity Investment Co., Ltd.“It was stated that ‘Surio Therapeutics possesses highly unique innovative technology; no comparable technologies currently on the market can achieve the integration of active tumor labeling and targeted cancer therapy. Once this technology platform is validated, it will not only have the potential to provide more efficacious treatments with fewer side effects for numerous cancer patients who currently rely solely on chemotherapy, but also be applicable to other medical fields such as disease detection and tissue imaging, indicating substantial market potential.’”

Orient Fortune is a mixed-ownership private equity fund management institution under Zhejiang Orient (SH.600120), a state-owned listed financial holding platform in Zhejiang Province, operating with market-oriented mechanisms and professionalized management. It focuses on early-stage and growth-stage investments in intelligent manufacturing and new materials, next-generation information technology, and life sciences. The firm has established an asset management system that integrates private equity investment with private securities investment, enabling synergistic research across primary and secondary markets. To date, Orient Fortune manages funds totaling over RMB 15 billion, has invested in more than 90 companies, and facilitated the successful public listing of over ten portfolio companies. Representative investment cases include ArcVideo Technology (688039), Ronbay Technology (688005), Cambricon Technologies (688256), Zhenlei Technology (688270), Chervon Auto (603982), Hualv Bio (300970), Nexchip Semiconductor (688249), CICT Mobile (688387), Highlander (300065), and Fortior Technology (300493).

Westlake Photonics is an investment entity established under the Sustainable Platform, which operates under the Westlake Education Foundation—the sponsoring organization of Westlake University. The Sustainable Platform is dedicated to advancing frontier technologies that promote the sustainable development of humanity and the environment. As an investment vehicle, Westlake Photonics focuses primarily on innovations in biotechnology and interdisciplinary fields, including BT+AI applications and synthetic biology. Returns generated from investment exits are reinvested into the Westlake Education Foundation to support the sustainable development of Westlake University. Leveraging its connection to over 20,000 members of the Westlake community affiliated with the Westlake Education Foundation, Westlake Photonics links top-tier scientific research resources, investment institutions, and industrial partners, providing robust support for project sourcing, evaluation, and post-investment value creation.

Deshi Capital is a specialized private equity investment management firm focused on investments in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. Deshi Capital is committed to identifying investment opportunities in niche markets, collaborating with entrepreneurs and founders to drive transformation in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.

Hangzhou Xihu Science and Technology Innovation Investment is a state-owned enterprise directly under the jurisdiction of the Xihu District People’s Government in Hangzhou. It serves as the management and operating entity for three major fund clusters—the Xihu District Direct Investment Fund, the Venture Capital Guidance Fund, and the Industrial Fund—as well as two major guarantee platforms: financing guarantees and the technology risk pool. The total assets under management amount to nearly RMB 10 billion. The Science and Technology Innovation Direct Investment Fund is a government-guided fund that operates on market-oriented principles. It invests in eligible technology start-ups primarily through direct equity participation, focusing on key supported industries such as the digital economy, intelligent manufacturing, aerospace information, life and health, and cultural creativity.