With nearly 100 million yuan in financing, how does Xiushi Biotech use synthetic biology technology to innovate the peptide drug industry?

Titanium Media learned that Xiushi Biopharmaceutical (Nantong) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xiushi Bio") announced that it has completed nearly 100 million yuan in Pre-A round of financing, which was led by Chuangjing Capital and followed by Huatai Zijin, Jinyu Bogor and Xiaofan Table Venture Capital.

The funds from this round of financing will be mainly used to continue to increase the construction of the company's unique innovative peptide biosynthesis technology platform and diversified pipeline research and development, complete and expand the construction of compliant peptide drug production lines, and accelerate the commercialization of the company's superior technologies and products at home and abroad.

In recent years, the excellent market performance of a number of peptide drugs led by semaglutide, as well as the rapid growth of PeptiDream, a leading enterprise in the field of peptide drug discovery, strongly confirm that this unique peptide between large and small molecules provides exciting possibilities for the solution of many complex diseases, and also provides a broad space for the research and development of innovative pharmaceutical companies that has not been deeply explored.

The peptide drug market reached $62.8 billion in 2020 and is expected to further increase to $96 billion by 2025, with a compound growth rate of 8.8% from 2019 to 2025. The corresponding global peptide CDMO market size will increase from US$2 billion in 2020 to US$4.4 billion in 2025, with a compound growth rate of 17.7% from 2019 to 2025.

At present, some companies in mainland China have begun to lay out the field of peptide drug development and CDMO services, and Xiushi Biotech is one of the very few start-ups that truly and effectively use synthetic biology technology to solve the problem of peptide drug industrialization and development.

He was admitted to Ocean University of China from Rudong County High School in 2005 and graduated from East China University of Science and Technology with a Ph.D. in 2017, and participated in the research work of China's first microalgae bioenergy 973 project "Scientific basis for large-scale preparation of microalgae energy" with Professor Li Yuanguang.

Successfully used synthetic biology technology to realize the biosynthesis of complex structural cyclic peptides, and became "the first team in China to realize the large-scale biological preparation of complex structural short peptide drugs". Subsequently, it achieved efficient expression in other peptide drugs, responded to the call of the country, took the lead in realizing a low-carbon and environmentally friendly production process, solved the bottleneck problem of traditional processes, and truly practiced green innovation. At the same time, the seeds of entrepreneurship were planted in my heart.

Founded in 2020, the core team is composed of technical experts in the fields of pharmaceutical engineering, fermentation engineering and protein engineering, Wu Yinsong and his team attach great importance to the cycle and feasibility of commercial transformation, and they hope to find a high value-added field with outstanding advantages in synthetic biology and conducive to commercial transformation, so they are particularly cautious in choosing tracks and categories.

After more than 3 years of development, it has realized the industrialization of a variety of biosynthetic peptide products, providing capacity construction advantages and cost advantages beyond the current traditional biological and chemical synthesis methods, and has won cooperation orders from many well-known pharmaceutical companies at home and abroad.

It is worth mentioning that Xiushi Bio has achieved a series of breakthrough synthesis strategies and process methods in the field of peptide biosynthesis, especially in the large-scale biosynthesis of short peptides, complex cyclic peptides and unnatural amino acid-modified peptides, which has achieved substantial industrialization results, providing a more economical and scale-up advantage of CMC options for peptide innovative drugs, and has also been widely recognized by downstream pharmaceutical companies.

"Whether it is a chassis cell or a fusion protein, it must meet the requirements of our final drug quality and drug production scale, which is a starting point for our design, and it is also the part that everyone considers less in the field of synthetic biology in China." Wu Yinsong said.

In the next step, Xiushi Biotech will continue to expand the peptide biosynthesis technology platform to provide more diverse and efficient solutions. At the same time, the biosynthesis strategy and process methods will be applied to more diversified peptide products in addition to peptide drugs, so as to promote the discovery, development and manufacturing of peptides to achieve more diversified commercial applications.

In 2024, synthetic biology will be classified as an emerging industry in China, supported by policies and labels such as "new quality productivity", especially in April this year, Tan Tianwei, president of Beijing University of Chemical Technology and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, also revealed at the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum annual meeting that biomanufacturing is a very important new track and new format of new quality productivity, which is currently led by the National Development and Reform Commission, and national ministries and commissions such as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Science and Technology are jointly developing a national biotechnology and biomanufacturing action plan, and it is expected to be introduced in the near future, "Biomanufacturing +." is the key to this.

At the same time, in the case of the overall financing environment, one reason why the financing of synthetic biology track is slightly better than that of biomedicine is that it has a shorter cycle. With the same amount of money, it may take 8 to 9 years for drugs to be commercialized, but synthetic organisms may be commercialized in 2 to 3 years.

Investors' Perspectives:

As the lead investor of this round of financing, Mr. Song Longtao, Managing Partner of Chuangjing Capital, said: "At present, peptides will continue to be popular in the global pharmaceutical and medical aesthetic markets, and the preparation cost of biosynthesis is low, and there is a very strong competitive space. The Xiushi Biotech team has rich experience in industrial development in the field of biomanufacturing and biomedicine, and has built an industry-leading peptide biosynthesis technology platform, which has been highly recognized by many downstream customers. We are optimistic about the technological advancement and commercial acumen of the Xiushi Biotech team, and look forward to the team continuing to promote the implementation of diversified biosynthetic peptide products and lead the development of the peptide biosynthesis industry." ”

Huatai Zijin said: "In recent years, Huatai Zijin has made a lot of investment in the upstream and downstream of peptide drugs, and peptides are playing an increasingly important role in the field of drug research and development with their unique pharmacological properties and broad application prospects. At present, peptide synthesis methods are mainly based on chemical synthesis, and biosynthesis has the advantages of low production cost, strong directional expression and large production scale, which is the future development trend. Xiushi Biotech has innovatively built a biosynthesis platform for short peptides and complex cyclic peptides, and has shown significant environmental protection and cost advantages in the synthesis of some peptide varieties. With the continuous accumulation and breakthrough of the company's technology, Xiushi Biotech will realize the innovation of biosynthesis in more peptide varieties, and is expected to become a leader in the field of biosynthetic peptides. ”

"Peptide ingredients have huge application prospects in the fields of pharmaceuticals, cosmetic active ingredients and functional foods, and Xiushi Biotech's technology platform spans multiple fields of peptide screening design, biosynthesis and chemical modification, and has achieved mass production and application of multiple pipelines in the field of pharmaceutical and cosmetic raw materials in a short period of time, and the team's technical ability and execution are admirable," said Li Hongsen, partner of Jinyu Bogor. (This article was first published in Titanium Media APP, author | Guo Hongyu, editor - Tao Tianyu)