MABSPACE BIOSCIENCES CO. LTD Reinventing biotechnology through discovery and development of antibody based therapeutics targeting unique epitopes

As medicine progresses into a new era of personalized therapy, the development of antibody-based therapeutics has entered the centre stage of a major shift in the focus of pharmaceutical companies. Driving the growth of biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, these therapeutics can be put to use in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, and other chronic diseases. However, it also needs to be considered that creating a balance with regards to reducing the side-effects and the overall economic cost is important in order to derive safe and targeted biotherapeutics.

In the light of the above mentioned, we are pleased to present MABSPACE BIOSCIENCES, one of the leading biotech companies based in Asia that focuses on discovering and developing innovative antibody therapeutics, which comprises discovery and patent protection, manufacturing, clinical development, sales and marketing. Antibody industry is the fastest growing segment in biopharmaceutics, an important part of healthcare industry. It is expected that the sale of antibody-based therapeutics will grow to 300 billion USD in 2022 according to Evaluate Pharma^®.

Inception of the company

MABSPACE BIOSCIENCES was founded in October 2012 with the establishment of an R&D center in Biobay, Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou, China. It establishes its own technology, IMMUNE TOLERANCE BREAKING TECHNOLOGY, for novel antibody therapeutics generation. Initially, the company utilized angel fund and provided service and formed collaboration with established local pharms. In August of 2015, the company closed 15M USD series A fund from Lilly Asia Ventures to advance its product candidates for oncology and eye disorders.

In September of 2017, MABSPACE submitted its first investigational new drug (IND) application to China FDA and in January 2018 to US FDA. The IND is for MABSPACE’s 2nd generation of PD-L1 antibody MSB2311. MABSPACE received clearance of its IND from FDA in February and China FDA in May of 2018. This marks an important milestone for a young startup company. In April 2018, MABSPACE initiated first in human study for MSB2311 in the US and will start its China study in August. In May 2018, MABSPACE closed a 40M USD series-B fund which is led by Sequoia Capital China.

Revolutionizing cancer treatment

One of the key challenges in the antibody therapeutics area is how to discover antibody drug with strong IP protection and differentiated profile that can provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace. MABSPACE is focused on discovering antibodies binding to unique spots on the drug target that can render both differentiated property and strong patent position. MABSPACE has applied this approach to both in-house programs and client programs. For example, one of the hottest areas of cancer treatment is antibodies against checkpoint inhibitor. This class of agents will be an important backbone for cancer treatment just like chemotherapy.

MABSPACE’s MSB2311 is world’s first and only intelligent PD-L1 targeting antibody that can recycle within the tumor once it gets into the tumor expressing its target protein PD-L1. It allows MSB2311 to accumulate in the tumor, penetrate deep into the tumor, have better treatment effects at even low doses and thus provides better benefits to patients: more efficacious, better tolerability and lower cost. This agent may provide MABSPACE big opportunities in countries like China where cancer is prevalent yet cost consciousness is high and most patients pay out of their own pocket.

In conversation with the CEO, Xueming Qian

How do you position yourself in the current domain? How do you amalgamate latest technology with your objectives?

MABSPACE BIOSCIENCES is positioned to lead in new product discovery and development. It has fully utilized its own technology to develop a panel of innovative pipeline product candidates that will be fund by itself or by its co-development partner. It has also leveraged the latest technology such as big data bioinformatics for target selection, artificial intelligence for drug design as well as novel biomarker for patient selection in its clinical development.

What is the major challenge that you face in the industry?

The key challenge is to recruit the right people or talents to support the continued growth of the company. We are in a very competitive yet highly regulated industry, and we compete for resources including talents, funding, patients and markets. For our company, the key challenge is to set the right strategy for the long run yet amass the needed resource to support growth.

Can you say about the geographies of your company?

MABSPACE is a global company with US and Asia as our key geographic territories. Our products candidates are being developed with a global vision and plan. As China is highly integrated into global market, we operate on a global basis.

What are your present and future focus areas?

We initially focused on developing antibody-based drug for cancer treatment. We will soon expand into antibody-based drugs for the treatment of eye disorders and metabolic disorders such as kidney or bone diseases.

Who are your target clients?

Our clients now are mainly co-development partners. They are very happy with the innovative drug candidates that we provide with differentiated drug like property and strong IP position. Our clients include HengRui Pharma, one of the largest biotech companies in China. We are also working with Ambrx, a US based Biotech Company in San Diego, and they have been very satisfied with our contribution to the joint program.

Knowing the thought leader

Xueming Qian, CEO and Founder

Xueming Qian, Ph.D., is a veteran of biotechnology industry. Dr. Qian was educated in US for graduate studies and worked at AMGEN INC., the largest biotechnology company in the world from 1997 to 2010. Dr. Qian started as postdoctoral fellow in 1997 and became an official scientist in 2000. His work at AMGEN is in the area of discovering and developing target-based antibody therapeutics for the treatment of human diseases including autoimmune diseases and metabolic disorders.

Dr. QIAN was the project team leader for multiple programs and was the inventors of several patent applications. He was the principal scientist before he joined a startup company in Beijing, Shenogen Pharma Group, to focus on drug development for cancer. He was SVP and head of R&D between 2010 and 2012. In 2013, Dr. Qian founded MABSAPCE BIOSCIENCES to focus on discovering novel and differentiated and affordable antibody therapeutics for the treatment of diseases with high unmet medical needs.

“It is the people and combined rich yet complimentary industrial expertise as well as our passion to serve the patients that differentiate us from our competitor. On the technical level, it is our proprietary technology of generating novel yet differentiated product candidates that differentiates us from others in the same domain.”