Jul 02, 2021
PharmCube recently interviewed Dr. Bing Yuan, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of OnCusp Therapeutics – a newly founded company that has closed its seed round financing of $25 million on April 1st, 2021 and has officially commenced operations both in New York and Shanghai.
In the interview, Dr. Yuan shared his views regarding new trends in the China biotech industry. Due to pricing pressure, fierce competition, increasing R&D and deal costs, he felt that the China-focused in-licensing model will face significant challenges and may not be sustainable. More Chinese biotech companies will be developing drugs for the global market. We are likely to see a significant increase of out-license deals with pharmaceutical innovations originating from China. Another key trend likely to emerge is newly established biotech companies in China becoming more specialized and focused, rather than being all-inclusive, fully integrated biopharmas. In addition, IPO will not be the only exist strategy in the future. Merger and acquisition will become a more attractive path down the road.
In light of these new trends, Dr. Yuan positioned OnCusp Therapeutics as a global biotech company focused on translating cutting-edge preclinical assets into innovative oncology therapeutics. According to his vision, OnCusp will in-license globally competitive oncology assets at preclinical drug candidate (PCC) stage and advance them in the U.S. and other countries to quickly establish clinical proof-of-concept (POC). Afterwards, OnCusp aims to out-license these drug candidates to multi-national pharmaceutical companies who will further take them to large registrational studies and commercialization in the global market. A highly experienced founding team specialized in global translational development and business development is formed to support this strategy.
At the end, Dr. Yuan pointed out that the company name “OnCusp Therapeutics” means to develop oncology drug candidates from promising research to the cusp of becoming life-saving therapies for cancer patients.
The original article in Chinese: 《探路Biopharm新模式》
