Lei Jianping on June 28
Elpiscience Group has submitted a prospectus for listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The annual loss is 850 million
Founded in 2017, Elpiscience is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to innovating oncology therapies using next-generation therapies on a global scale. Elpiscience is revolutionizing cancer treatment by turning "cold" tumors into "hot" tumors.
Accumulating evidence suggests that TME status is a major factor in the limited efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors ("ICIs"). "Cold" tumors characterized by inhibitory TME and lack of T cell infiltration not only have a weak response to ICIs, but also develop resistance to ICIs after initial treatment.
Elpiscience's strategic focus is to eliminate inhibitors in TME and induce a higher immune response across tumor types, resulting in more robust anti-tumor activity.
As of the Latest Practicable Date, Elpiscience's innovation pipeline consists of six major assets, four of which are in the clinical stage and two are in the preclinical stage. ES102 is Elpiscience's core product and a clinically advanced hexavalent OX40 activator antibody.
ES102 is specifically designed for the treatment of cancer patients who do not respond well to ICIs and has demonstrated promising safety and anti-tumor activity in clinical trials, both as a single agent and in combination with programmed cell death protein 1 ("PD-1") antibodies, including patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) who are resistant to PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors.
Since its license from Inhibrx Inc. (now Inhibrx Biosciences, Inc.) in 2018, Elpiscience has completed two Phase 1 clinical trials of ES102 in patients with advanced solid tumors in China (both as a single agent and in combination with a PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor).
According to the prospectus, Elpiscience's other income and income in 2022 and 2023 will be 80.98 million yuan and 44.45 million yuan respectively; R&D costs were 351 million yuan and 108 million yuan respectively.
Elpiscience's losses in 2022 and 2023 will be 770 million yuan and 853 million yuan, respectively.
As of December 31, 2023, Elpiscience had cash and cash equivalents of $270 million.
Hillhouse and Tencent are shareholders
Elpiscience's executive directors are Dr. Ji Xiaohui and Dr. Lu Hongtao; The non-executive Directors are Dr. Xu Hansen and Dr. He Xin; The independent non-executive Directors are Tan Bo, Ms. Liu Yuwen and Dr. Tan Xuehai.
Since its inception, Elpiscience has raised four pre-financing rounds totaling approximately US$252 million (equivalent to approximately RMB1.79 billion). Elpiscience's investors include a number of sophisticated investors, such as LAVUSD, Shanghai Liyi, Hillhouse Investments, Greater Bay Area Fund, HITOP and Tencent.
In 2018, Elpiscience completed a $20 million Series A financing round at a valuation of $24.8 million. In September of the same year, it completed a $35 million Series A+ financing of US$35 million with a post-investment valuation of US$105 million, a US$91.5 million financing with a post-investment valuation of US$214 million in May 2020, and a US$105 million financing with a post-investment valuation of US$600 million in May 2021.
Before the IPO, Dr. Ji Xiaohui held 10.18% of the shares, Dr. Lu Hongtao held 8.96% of the shares, Dr. Shen Wenyan held 1.77% of the shares, and Dr. Shi Yi's LAVUSD held 22.93% of the shares.
Dr. Chen Fei's Shanghai Liyi holds 10.59% of the shares, Hillhouse Investment holds 9.51% of the shares, the Greater Bay Area Fund holds 5.38% of the shares, and HITOP holds 4.92% of the shares.
Tencent holds 4.09% of the shares, CDH of CDH Investments holds 2.93% of the shares, Gaotejia Investment Group holds 2.66% of the shares, and Deyi Capital holds 2.44% of the shares.
Cormorant holds 2.31% of the shares, Juming Investment holds 1.66%, Fengshuo Venture and Yuexiu Jinchan hold 1.64% of the shares, and Oriza Holdings holds 1.3% of the shares.
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