On April 15, 2024, at the strategic signing ceremony for 'Innovation-driven, collaborative development', RECORNA (Guangzhou) Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "RECORNA BIO") and the BeiGene Bioisland Innovation Center (hereinafter referred to as "BeiGene Innovation Center") announced that an in-depth collaboration has been reached to jointly create a strategic collaboration center for nucleic acid-based innovative therapy, dedicated to the development and innovation of new nucleic acid drugs.
It is reported that the BeiGene Innovation Center has decided to partner with RECORNA, becoming one of its important collaborators. This collaboration will bring multi-faceted support to RECORNA BIO, providing technical expertise and empowerment in drug target selection and indication expansion, marking an important step for both parties in the R&D of nucleic acid therapy.
Dr. Jian Liu, CEO of the BeiGene Innovation Center, reflected on his journey of getting to know the founding team of RECORNA BIO. He stated that the reason why the BeiGene Innovation Center is actively helping this startup biotech company is that its team has a solid theoretical and practical foundation in RNA editing, as well as extensive experience in corporate operations.
Dr. Liu Jian said: "All along, BeiGene Innovation Center has hoped to provide support to innovative companies and share our experience." Two years ago, after Dr. Liu came into contact with this team, he strongly promoted collaboration with them. The BeiGene Innovation Center is committed to empowering outstanding and young scientists and entrepreneurs. Its purpose is to meet the needs of startups in areas such as technology, experimentation, and mentoring by providing various supporting facilities and services.
He also said that the BeiGene Innovation Center will provide full industry value chain support to empower RECORNA BIO, and looks forward to further cooperation in the future. "We hope to provide comprehensive support for RECORNA BIO through this collaboration. We hope that RECORNA BIO will become a shining star in its future development."
Professor Dongming Kuang, Vice Dean of the School of Life Sciences at Sun Yat-sen University, stated in his speech that in recent years, the top ten scientific advancements selected by the American journal "Science" have all focused on life sciences, highlighting its central role in the development of modern technology.
Professor Kuang said that the development of life sciences is of great significance for the country’s future. The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Bio-economy" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2022 clearly outlines the key development areas of biopharmaceuticals, bio-agriculture, bioresources, and bioinformatics. The School of Life Sciences at Sun Yat-sen University has always been at the forefront of research in the field of evolutionary and synthetic biology.
The RNA editing drugs developed by RECORNA BIO, as a key focus of the school’s translational application direction, led by Professor Rui Zhang, will become an important example of technology research and translation at School of Life Sciences. We believe that under the support of the experienced management team from the incubation platform at BeiGene Innovation Center, RECORNA BIO will leverage its advantages to achieve greater success.
Mr. Jingbo Shao, the Deputy Director of the Guangzhou Development Zone Management Committee, stated in his speech that BeiGene, as a global oncology drug innovation company, has established a large molecule manufacture site in the Development Zone of Guangzhou since 2017. Currently, BeiGene's Phase I and Phase II manufacture facilities located in Guangzhou Knowledge City have been completed in September 2019 and December 2020 respectively, with a one-time bioreactor capacity of 24,000 liters. In addition, the Guangzhou base has added a production capacity of 10,000 liters in 2023, bringing the total capacity to 64,000 liters (as of Decemberer31, 2023). Even more exciting is that the ADC commercial production base has recently been successfully established. After several years of rapid development, BeiGene has not only become a leader among innovative biopharmaceutical companies but has also set a benchmark on the global stage.
Shao Jingbo said that in order to further optimize the innovation ecosystem, BeiGene has established an innovation center on the Guangzhou Bioisland. This is an important project personally organized by Dr. Jian Liu. He adheres to the philosophy that fully empowers biotechnology companies by leveraging the w talent, R&D capabilities, and market-oriented efficiency advantages of BeiGene. This comprehensive empowerment, from research and development to production and marketing, injects strong momentum into the biotechnology industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
The RECORNA BIO, which has signed this collaboration agreement, is a representative in the field of novel nucleic acid drug research and innovation; and it is one of several projects currently incubating at BeiGene Innovation Center. In addition, as an outstanding exemplification of the Sun Yat-sen University, RECORNA BIO has successfully transformed its achievements with accelerated support from the BeiGene Innovation Center, highlighting the vision of the BeiGene Innovation Center in supporting small and medium-sized enterprises towards success.
Mr. Shao said that the Development Zone of Guangzhou is the core area of Guangzhou’s biomedicine industry. The total annual revenue of the biomedicine, health, and medical device industries in the entire area exceeds 29 billion US dollars. It has gathered more than 4,000 well-known biomedicine and medical device companies from both domestic and abroad. There are 209 provincial and above R&D institutions, of which 12 are national-level. It has gathered 25 workstations by members of the National Academy of Sciences, including Nanshan Zhong, Tao Xu, Erwei Song, Xiaoliang Xie, Xiaodong Wang, and Yigong Shi. In 2023, 100 drug clinical permits were approved, accounting for about 93% of those in Guangzhou City.
Mr. Shao also provided a detailed introduction to Bioisland. Bioisland is the life science hub of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, committed to building a world-class biomedicine R&D center. Since its opening in 2011, more than 300 companies have been introduced and settled, including AstraZeneca’s Southern Headquarters, KingMed Diagnostics, and the Danaher Greater Bay Area Headquarters, etc. There are also life science research institutions on the island such as Guangzhou National Laboratory for life science led by Academician Zhong and the strategic platforms like the South China New Drug Fast Track Platform. Guangzhou Development Zone is fully committed to building a policy pilot aggregation area branded as "Guangzhou International Bioisland", working together to create a global highland for biomedicine innovation and industrial development.
Mr. Shao mentioned that recently, at the completion ceremony of the ADC building at BeiGene's manufacture site in Guangzhou, Dr. Xiaodong Wang, co-founder and chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of BeiGene, stated that BeiGene’s development is like a marathon runner, consistently persevering towards the finish line. "I sincerely hope that BeiGene can truly realize the concept of 'innovative drugs for the benefit of the world and the people', and continue to lead the innovative development of the biopharmaceutical and health industry," said Shao Jingbo.
Innovation and a global perspective will become the winning concepts for driving future development. In this process, the active participation of industrial capital is particularly crucial. In his speech, Mr. Xiaoteng Long, the representative of investors and founding partner of the Beijing Life Science Park Innovation Investment Fund, said that he has lost count of how many times he has entered the BeiGene Innovation Center, but the investment by the Beijing Life Science Park Innovation Investment Fund in RECORNA BIO is still vivid in his memory.
As early as May 2022, the fund made its first investment in RECORNA BIO. It is exciting that RECORNA BIO has demonstrated excellent preclinical data, fully proving its innovation capabilities.
Today, RECORNA BIO's new round of financing has once again attracted the attention of many investors and companies, including the strong support from BeiGene Innovation Center and the Guangzhou Municipal Government. This is not only an affirmation of RECORNA BIO's efforts in the past, but also a recognition of its future potential. At the same time, it also reflects the philosophy of the Beijing Life Science Park Innovation Investment Fund in its commitment to original innovation and to providing technology transfer services for scientists and entrepreneurs.
Even more honorably, BeiGene’s Changping R&D Center is also located in the Zhongguancun Life Science Park, being key enterprise incubated and nurtured by the Zhongguancun Life Science Park. Today, BeiGene has not only grown into a leading company in innovative medicines but also has a professional team at its Innovation Center in Guangzhou, incubating innovative companies like RECORNA BIO. Long Xiaoteng also feels gratified and extremely proud.
Ms. Rong Xin, General Manager of RECORNA BIO, introduced the exploration of the development path of nucleic acid therapy under the new situation. RECORNA BIO's RNA editing platform focuses on precise single-point editing at the RNA level using small nucleosides for drug development, allowing flexible and reversible regulation of gene expression and function, enabling various mechanisms of RNA regulation. From the perspective of biotechnology, RECORNA BIO's RNA editing platform demonstrates safer and more diverse characteristics.
In the end, Ms. Xin especially thanked the strong support from the Guangzhou Development Zone and the BeiGene Innovation Center. "Looking to the future, we look forward to establishing deeper cooperation with the government, universities, the industrial sector, and the investment community to jointly promote the development of new drug R&D in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area," said Xin Rong.
Professor Rui Zhang, founder of RECORNA BIO and professor from the School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, detailed in an interview the advantages and application scenarios of RECORNA BIO's RNA editing technology based on endogenous ADAR protein. He stated: "Compared to CRISPR technology, RNA editing technology based on endogenous ADAR protein has greater flexibility and safety, allowing for the repair and optimization of the protein sequences and functions without altering the genomic sequence. In addition, RECORNA BIO’s drug molecules for RNA base editing are short oligoribonucleotides. Compared with other gene editing therapies, the most unique feature of this class of drugs is that it is reversible in efficacy and adjustable in dosage. Therefore, the RNA editing technology has broad application prospects in treating various common diseases caused by non-hereditary mutations and in improving functionality for various indications, such as cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and aging, while also demonstrating good safety.".
Professor Zhang also revealed that RECORNA BIO has an independently owned intellectual property, MIMIC RNA editing platform, which can repair and optimize the sequence and function of proteins without permanently modifying the genome.
Regarding the collaboration with the BeiGene Innovation Center, Professor Zhang stated: "This cooperation will bring more international resources to RECORNA BIO, including support for target discovery and clinical research support, accelerating our R&D process. We look forward to working together to develop more clinically valuable therapeutics."
