On October 23, 2021, the opening ceremony of Innolake Biopharm Shanghai Office for Business Operation and the signing ceremony of strategic partnership were successfully held in the press hall of Shanghai New Bund Oriental Sports Center. More than 200 guests from Hangzhou and Shanghai government, partners, investors, academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies and press media gathered together to celebrate this monumental moment in Innolake’s development.
At the ceremony, Dr. Mingde Xia, the founder and Chairman of Innolake Biopharm, delivered a welcome speech and shared the history and strategic plan of the company with the guests. Dr. Xia expressed gratitude toward the Hangzhou Qiantang New District and Shanghai government, pre-A round investors, and domestic and foreign partners for their continuous support. With the tremendous support, Innolake has established a robust pipeline of 10 drug candidates and a core team with comprehensive in-house R&D capacity in just one year since its founding in 2020. Following Dr. Xia’s speech, Dr. Garry Neil, who serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Arena Pharmaceuticals and Chief Scientific Officer of Avalo Therapeutics, also the former Group President at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical R&D, shared his congratulation message over webcasting. Dr. Neil sincerely hopes to facilitate more collaboration between Avalo and Innolake in the future. Through integrating and utilizing innovative resources from both China and the United States, Innolake and its partners are fully geared towards realizing the common goal of bringing new therapeutic options and hope to patients around the world.
As a biotech company with a headquarter in Hangzhou and a business operation center in Shanghai, Innolake Biopharm has received tremendous support from the government of both cities. Mr. Feng Shi, the Deputy District Chief of Qiantang District of Hangzhou and Mr. Shupei Dong, a senior researcher from the Biopharmaceutical Division of Shanghai Science & Technology Commission, delivered congratulation speeches during the ceremony. In their messages, Mr. Shi and Mr. Dong recognized the significant progress Innolake has made within such a short period, applauded for what the Innolake team’s great achievements and expressed their sincere faith in Innolake’s future development. Mr. Shi reiterated Qiantang District’s determination to support the biopharmaceutical industry’s rapid development, with special emphasis given to companies like Innolake for its global and innovative vision. Furthermore, Mr. Shi and Mr. Dong both commented that the resource integration of Yangtze River Delta for the development of biopharmaceutical industry will create greater opportunities in the future.
Innolake Biopharm Shanghai Business Operation Center is in the New Bund CBD area of Shanghai. The office opened on October 8, 2021 and Shanghai employees moved in after the Chinese National Day holiday. Innolake’s management team possess over 20 years’ work experience in multinational pharmaceutical and first tier biotech companies. Their professional capabilities cover the full spectrum of innovative therapeutics development, from early discovery of small molecule and biologic drug to clinical trial development and from multiple country registration to commercial partnering development. Running in parallel with the Shanghai Office is the 5000 m2 R&D laboratory and pilot manufacturing center in Hangzhou Qiantang Hub, while the clinical development and regulatory affairs office in Beijing is also under construction. At last but not least, the business operation office and R&D lab are being planned in the United States as well. At the end of the opening ceremony, the two founders of Innolake Biopharm, Dr. Mingde Xia and Mr. Robert Chen invited the distinguished guests to join them on stage, where they performed the lighting ceremony of the Shanghai Business Operation Center.
Mr. Robert Chen, the Chief Operation Officer of Innolake, opened and chaired the signing ceremony between Innolake, represented by Dr. Mingde Xia, and its important strategic partners, which include Helios Biotech, represented by Chairman Prof. Yanming Wang, WuXi Biologics, represented by CEO Dr. Zhisheng Chen, WuXi AppTec Scientific Research, represented by President Dr. Shuhui Chen, and Dongda Biologics, represented by Executive Director Mr. Rishan Ou. During the ceremony, Innoake’s strategic partners conveyed their determination to a successful collaboration and their utmost support for Innolake’s development. The array of partnering projects will empower Innoake to rapidly advance in key areas, such as expanding its in-house early discovery and translational medicine research capabilities and accelerating its pre-clinical and CMC processes.
After the signing ceremony, Academician Yufang Shi, a member of the European Academy of Sciences and an international renowned scientist in stem cell translational medicine, gave an insightful lecture on "Stem Cells, Immunity and Regenerative Medicine". In his lecture, Academician Shi emphasized the importance of “bench research” in drug development, as bench research is the foundation of innovation. Academic institution, research organization and industry must work closely together to translate bench results to medical therapeutics that will meet the unmet medical needs of patients and clinicians. In closing, Academician Shi encouraged that with the vast human and capital resources in China, we must have confidence in developing top-tier FIC/BIC drugs originated from China. Following Academician Shi, Dr. Gang Wang, the Chief Scientist of Clarivate Analytics shared with the audience an insightful analysis of the current R&D progress, industry trend and strategic partnering in the innovative medicine area both in China and the world.
After the ceremonies, the guests continued their discussion and social event at the banquet. A tour of the Shanghai office was offered to guests who were interested.
About Innolake Biopharm
Innolake Biopharm is a clinical-stage biotech company, dedicated to developing innovative medicines to improve the life of patients with cancer or autoimmune diseases around the world. The company was founded by Dr. Mingde Xia and Mr. Robert Chen in 2020. The company completed Pre-Series A financing of $40 million in March 2021. It is now recognized as one of the Next Unicorns in Hangzhou. Innolake’s core strengths lie with the in-house discovery platform that encompasses both small molecule and biologics, and a management team that possesses deep industry knowledge and a committed passion for science. Through both in-house R&D and strategic partnership with domestic and international partners, Innolake has established a diverse portfolio including more than 10 oncology and autoimmune drug candidates with First-in-Class and Best-in-Class potential, of which two have entered the clinical development stage.