Taiwan's new drug research and development is accelerating! Anlixirong won the "2024 Moderna Taiwan mRNA Foresight Innovation Award", breaking through the bottleneck of cancer treatment, and vitiligo immune drug entered the second phase of clinical trials

A total of 5 teams won the "2024 Moderna Taiwan mRNA Innovation Award". (Photo by Wang Yousheng)

Anlixirong focuses on developing new immune drugs

Founded in 2017, Anlixirong Biomedical focuses on the research and development of new immune drugs, including tumor cancer, degenerative neurological diseases, autoimmune disorders and other fields. It has won the Bill Gates Foundation and the American Academy of The team was awarded the Dementia Association Grant and became the only Asian team to receive the award. This year, the team was recognized with the "2024 Moderna Taiwan mRNA Innovation Award" for its T-Action technology, and its R&D capabilities once again amazed everyone.

Group photo of the Anlixirong Biomedical team. (Photo by Wang Yousheng)

As for the reason why Anlixirong invested in the research of new immune drugs, it is related to the background of the three founders, Chen Hongkai, Gu Zhenglun, and Yang Muhua. They are all experts in immune diseases and specialize in the fields of autoimmune diseases, neuroinflammation and tumor immunity. In addition, the investment amount and risk in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry are large, so Taiwanese companies must keep an eye on market trends. Currently, the world's largest new drug market is immunotherapy drugs, so Anlixirong is also strategically moving towards the largest market.

"We have made a breakthrough in tumor immunology and hope to overcome the difficulties in the development of next-generation drugs through mRNA technology." Chen Hongkai, chairman of Anlixirong, pointed out that they currently have two important new drug projects, namely Alzheimer's There is a huge market demand for immune drugs for leukemia and vitiligo. If new drugs are launched in 4 to 5 years, the annual sales will reach billions of US dollars. They look forward to promoting the application of immunotherapy drugs and hope to have the opportunity to cooperate with international manufacturers such as Moderna to develop new therapies.

Chen Hongkai, Chairman of Anlixirong. (Photo by Wang Yousheng)

Lin Shijia, CEO of the Taiwan Medical Alliance Foundation and general manager of Taian Biotech, said that Taiwan's new drug development has entered a new stage. The younger generation of biomedical talents now have a medical background, international experience, sensitivity to clinical sites, and It can directly connect with the international standards, and the chances of successful new drug research and development are high. Chen Hongkai, Chairman of Anlixirong, is one of the representatives. He is a clinical physician himself and has qualifications from GSK International Pharmaceuticals. He is sensitive to the Unmet Medical Needs in clinical sites.

Lin Shijia also mentioned that Anlixirong's research and development strategy starts from immunology, and has developed unique and competitive new drug projects in three areas: tumor cancer, vitiligo, and Alzheimer's disease. For vitiligo treatment, Indemakitug, an antibody drug developed by Anlixirong, can precisely target the immune mechanism of disease treatment and is expected to bring revolutionary changes to future treatments. Indemakitug has completed the international Phase I clinical trial and will begin FDA approval next year. Phase II clinical trial.

The Prospects and Outlook of Taiwan's Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries

As for the prospect of applying Taiwan's mRNA technology in cancer treatment, Tao Mihua, CEO of the Translational Medicine Center of the Academia Sinica, pointed out that the most feared thing about cancer is actually recurrence. Cancer treatment is now very advanced. Once the treatment is completed, the future is to return for regular checkups, While waiting for the results, some people may be fine, but some people have a high recurrence rate. The purpose of cancer vaccines is during the period of waiting for the results. During this period, patients are given personalized cancer vaccines to prevent recurrence. .

Tao Mihua also went on to explain that there are a lot of cancer patients in Taiwan, but the cancer vaccines designed for Orientals and Westerners are different. This is related to the difference in human leukocyte antigens. In addition, the cancer cell data is in the hands of the patient's attending physician. , surgeons, the production of cancer vaccines still needs to be localized. Taiwan still has the opportunity to catch up with market trends and is striving to catch up.

Tao Mihua, CEO of the Center for Translational Medicine, Academia Sinica. (Photo by Wang Yousheng)

However, Taiwan lacks a site for Phase I clinical trials of mRNA vaccines, making it difficult to quickly develop and advance experiments to the clinical trial stage. In order to overcome this difficulty, Academia Sinica decided to establish an mRNA GMP production facility in the National Biotechnology Park. The facility has been completed, covers an area of ​​approximately 100 square meters, and is in the process of applying for certification from the Food and Drug Administration. Tao Mihua revealed that the facility is expected to be officially put into use as early as next year.

Regarding the future of Taiwan's biotech and pharmaceutical industry, Chen Hongkai believes that Taiwan's biotech and pharmaceutical industry has flourished in recent years, and many companies have signed up to participate in the "2024 Moderna Taiwan mRNA Foresight Innovation Award". He hopes that related companies will not narrow their horizons and only do OEM and pursue short-term profits. In fact, innovative research and development is a new opportunity that can drive the growth of the entire industry. Anlixirong has completed two international external licensing transactions and is expected to Listed on the Emerging Stock Exchange in 2025.

"If we want to improve the quality of life and get better medical care, we can't do without the biomedical field." Lin Shijia said emotionally that Taiwan has excellent talents and many of them are investing in the biomedical field, but from a financial perspective, without money, nothing can be done. No, I call on the government, venture capital community, and other companies to learn more about the biomedical field and give it more attention and resources. She emphasized that the biomedical field requires a large amount of capital and the product life cycle is long. The National Development Fund cannot reduce investment due to high risks and should play a leading role.

Lin Shijia, CEO of the Taiwan Medical Alliance Foundation, and Chen Hongkai, Chairman of Anlixirong, took a photo together. (Photo by Wang Yousheng)