Westlake Therapeutics Secures Over RMB 100 Million in Financing to Support Development of World-First Red Blood Cell Therapeutics

VCBeat has learned that recently, Westlake Therapeutics has completed a new round of strategic financing of over RMB 100 million. The round was co-led by Beijing Shijingshan Modern Innovation Industry Development Fund Co., Ltd. and Reliance Synthetic Biology Fund, with renowned industrial investors joining as follow-on investors. Existing shareholders including Efung Capital, Huafang Investment and HongShan made additional investments, and HAOYUE CAPITAL acted as the exclusive financial advisor. Financing proceeds will be primarily deployed to advance the company's red blood cell therapeutic pipeline in oncology, autoimmune disorders and other therapeutic areas, accelerate clinical verification and registration filings of core products, and further boost R&D, manufacturing and industrialization capacities.

Founded in 2019, Westlake Therapeutics is the first biotech startup spun off from research achievements of Westlake University, focusing on the R&D and industrialization of engineered red blood cell therapeutics. Centered on the natural interaction between red blood cells and the immune system, the company leverages the biological traits of red blood cells that home to the spleen and participate in immune regulation to develop a new generation of immune red blood cell drugs.

Centered on this track, the company has built REDx, the world's first adult red blood cell-drug conjugation technology platform. The platform enables stable conjugation of various therapeutic payloads including antibodies, nucleic acids, small molecules and enzymes with red blood cells, and the firm has built a portfolio of innovative pipelines covering oncology, autoimmune diseases, metabolic disorders and nucleic acid delivery. Meanwhile, Westlake Therapeutics has established a fully automated, closed and standardized manufacturing system for red blood cell therapeutics to guarantee stable supply for clinical programs and lay a solid foundation for subsequent large-scale production and industrialization. Relevant research findings have been published in top-tier international academic journals such as Nature Cancer, Science Translational Medicine and Science Advances. The company has also been invited to deliver oral presentations at world-leading conferences including ASCO, ASGCT and AACR. It has achieved multiple world-first breakthroughs in the field of red blood cell therapeutics, establishing itself as a pioneer and global leader in this segment.

The company's core pipeline candidate, WTX-212, is the world's first red blood cell–anti-PD-1 antibody conjugate, developed for solid tumors resistant to PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy. There are over 20 million new cancer cases globally each year, with solid tumors accounting for approximately 90%. Immunotherapies represented by PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors have become important treatment modalities for various solid tumors; however, a significant number of patients still develop primary or acquired resistance, lacking effective subsequent treatment options. WTX-212 leverages the natural splenic homing property of red blood cells to remodel the immune microenvironment within the spleen, promoting the expansion of de novo tumor-specific T cells and enhancing systemic anti-tumor immune responses, thereby overcoming immune resistance at the fundamental mechanistic level. This drug offers the advantages of low toxicity, standardized preparation, and scalable production, holding promise to provide a new therapeutic pathway for patients with immunotherapy-resistant solid tumors. In the first-in-human, investigator-initiated clinical trial, WTX-212 demonstrated a favorable safety profile and significant antitumor activity in patients with PD-1/PD-L1-resistant solid tumors. It achieved the world's first complete response in a solid tumor patient treated with red blood cell-based therapy, with sustained survival benefits observed. WTX-212 is scheduled for IND submission in both China and the United States in 2026, and clinical exploration of its allogeneic red blood cell formulation has already been initiated.

Beyond oncology immunotherapy, the company has also developed pipelines for red blood cell-mediated nucleic acid delivery. Its flagship candidate WTX-101 is a red blood cell-mRNA-LNP conjugate therapeutic. By harnessing the natural interaction mechanism between red blood cells and the splenic immune system, it remodels the in vivo distribution and delivery route of mRNA drugs, enabling highly targeted delivery to the spleen and myeloid immune cells while lowering the risks of liver exposure and systemic inflammatory responses associated with conventional LNP systems. Leveraging this platform, the company has realized in vivo generation of CAR immune cells, offering a novel technical approach for the treatment of tumors and autoimmune diseases.