Biotech, don't want to grow up

On September 19, Colab and WuXi Biologics jointly announced that WuXi Biologics and WuXi Biologics will reach a cooperation to absorb the latter's Suzhou process development and pilot production facilities, while ensuring the development and production needs
of its global innovative drug pipeline.

Kewang was founded in 2017, mainly engaged in antibody macromolecule drugs
.

When the factory was completed, Ji Xiaohui, CEO of Kewang, said that the completion of Suzhou's process development and pilot base was "the first step towards industrialization"
.

Kowang is just the epitome of the ambitious Biotech industry
.

Once dreamed of going public, now choose "slimming"

Before the news of the abandonment of the Suzhou factory came out, the development momentum of Kewang had been good
.

The research and development of Kewang mainly takes two routes: one is double anti-drug drugs, and the other is the development
of new targets.

Looking at the world, one of the core varieties of Kewang, VEGF/DLL4 double antibody, is only in research by three foreign companies such as AbbVie, which is the fastest progress in the company's research and development project and has entered phase II clinical
.

Source: Kewang Pharma official website

In general, Kewang Pharmaceutical has made relatively rapid progress in the field of double antibodies
.

Within five years of its establishment, CobVien completed four rounds of financing, accumulating US$251 million
.

However, just 1 year later, the news
of the abandonment of the Suzhou factory was reported.

For the sudden change of Kewang, the Health Bureau asked Ji Xiaohui for verification, but there was no response
.

Although Kewang announced 9 key R&D pipelines, 5 were pre-clinical and 4 projects entered the clinic
.

Even if it is as optimistic as Ji Xiaohui estimates, it will be 3 years after Kewang achieves product revenue
.

The cost of self-built factories of biomedical enterprises is not cheap
.

After May 2021, Kewang did not disclose any new financing, and choosing "slimming" is a step
that Kewang has to take.

Selling to WuXi Bio for monetization may be the most suitable choice
.

Biotech is no longer growing savagely

In the past few years, the financing environment in China's biomedical industry has been relaxed, making everyone forget about risks and spend money very casually
.

Since June 2021, the biomedical sector has continued to decline, which in turn has triggered a tightening
of investment in the primary market.
The biomedical industry is experiencing difficulties, and "how to get financing" is a problem
for all pharmaceutical companies.
The money in your hand must be spent on the blade of the
knife.

Doesn't Biotech want to be a Biopharma? Definitely not
.

The choice of Kowang is likely to be under pressure, which may be one
of the epitomes of the Biotech industry's return to normalcy.

The core of innovative pharmaceutical companies lies in product innovation, and it is of course best to control the entire link of "research and production and marketing", but not every enterprise must make the whole industrial chain
.
Many small and medium-sized pharmaceutical companies in Europe and the United States focus on research and development, production and sales are handed over to third parties, and some even research and development results are mainly authorized to the outside world
.
Each enterprise builds its own large-scale production line, which is not the common law
of industry development.

In fact, Krawang's BD cooperation is very active
.
Foresight VEGF/DLL4 double antibody was introduced from TRIGR Therapreutics in the United States; The OX40 agonist under research has also chosen to be developed
in collaboration with Junshi Biologics.

Not only Biotech, but also pharmaceutical manufacturers have a time to
shrink the front.
In 2015, the State Food and Drug Administration issued the Technical Guidelines for the R&D and Evaluation of Biosimilars (Trial), and each company invested heavily in the production of
biosimilars.
In September of that year, Pfizer signed a contract with Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone to build a factory, investing US$350 million, claiming to be Pfizer's "largest overseas investment project since 2008" and "the world's third and Asia's first biotechnology center"
.

As a result, the base did not produce a single biologics and was sold to WuXi Biologics
in 2021.

Pfizer sold the factory, also because the market has undergone major changes
.
Pfizer originally planned to introduce trastuzumab, bevacizumab, adalimumab and other similar drugs at the Hangzhou base, but several drugs have not been approved in China; In 2019, biosimilars produced by BIOTEC, Qilu Pharmaceutical and Fuhong Henlius have been listed
.
Pfizer had a production base, but no products, and finally chose to sell the base
.

After all, it is much easier to build a factory than to develop a product; The introduction of biomedical industry in various places pays more attention to the construction of production bases; When going public to raise funds, investing in a physical base will also look and feel much
better than investing in R&D.
These may be the reasons why domestic innovative pharmaceutical companies are keen to build their own production bases
.

Open up when the funds are sufficient, and open source and throttle
when the environment is not good.
For the entire industry, it is not a good thing
that Biotech, Biopharma, and CXO form a cooperation mechanism with each other.