Peptide medicine research and development: declare war on "super bacteria"

The picture shows Chen Yuxin (first from the right) discussing problems with Michelle (second from the right), chief consultant of Pulai pharmaceutical and winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in chemistry (picture)
The picture shows a group photo of employees of Pulai pharmaceutical (picture) Not long ago, Chen Yuxin, chairman and founder of Jiangsu Pulai Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Co., Ltd., came to Shenzhen to attend the biennial China International polypeptide academic conference He was awarded the "outstanding contribution award of peptide application" by the conference Party to commend his efforts and achievements in peptide medicine research and development However, for Chen Yuxin, receiving the award is not the most important purpose of the trip In fact, since he returned to China to start his own business, he has always paid close attention to the industry trends and cutting-edge academic achievements in the field of peptide, seizing every opportunity to find information that can help enterprises further develop and improve This time is no exception "We will do our best to develop new peptide antibacterial drugs and declare war on the" super bacteria "resistant to drugs." Chen Yuxin believes that a vast market is waiting for him When the new drug is on the market, it is the time for human beings to win over the drug-resistant bacteria Peptide antibacterial is worth looking forward to As an expert in the field of Biochemistry, Chen Yuxin's resume is extremely dazzling In 1998, he graduated from Jilin University with a master's degree in biochemistry; later, he studied in Canada with a doctor's degree in biochemistry in 2005; after that, he went to the University of Colorado School of medicine to study for a postdoctoral degree During his study abroad, Chen Yuxin developed and patented polypeptide antibacterial technology In order to promote technology marketization, he returned to China with patent in 2007 and founded Jiangsu Pulai Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Co., Ltd in Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province in 2009 Chen Yuxin admitted that the reason for choosing to return to China to start a business is not only that it is hard to leave home, but also that the abuse of antibiotics in China is more serious and the demand for drug-resistant bacteria is more intense In addition, China's scientific research talent reserve has begun to mature, and the gap between China and developed countries in innovation capacity is narrowing "From the perspective of medical classification, peptide drugs are a kind of drugs between chemical agents (chemical drugs for short) and biological products; from the perspective of molecular structure, peptide drugs are closer to biological products Although polypeptide molecules are smaller than proteins, they are all composed of amino acids like proteins It's also important that peptides can be chemically synthesized " Chen Yuxin told reporters that to develop peptide antibacterial drugs instead of antibiotics and solve the problem of antibiotic abuse and drug-resistant bacteria is the first intention of his own business According to the data of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), since the discovery of peptides in 1930s, the number of peptide drugs has been increasing exponentially Nowadays, many pharmaceutical companies around the world have focused on peptide drugs, and peptide drugs have been gradually applied to various diseases Insulin is a typical example At present, the annual compound growth rate of peptide drugs in the world is close to 20%, far higher than that of chemical drugs (5%) and biological products (10%) But in the field of antibacterial, the application of polypeptide is still close to blank Chen Yuxin told reporters that peptide antibiotics have advantages over traditional antibiotics in anti infection "The target of traditional antibiotics is an enzyme or a protein in the metabolic pathway But in fact, bacteria can produce new proteins through gene mutation to replace the parts inhibited by antibiotics, which is the principle of drug resistance The mechanism of action of polypeptide antibiotics is completely different It acts on phospholipids of bacterial cell membranes According to medical observation, phospholipids have never changed in the history of bacterial evolution Therefore, it is very difficult for bacteria to develop resistance to peptide antibiotics Of course, science is not absolute, but at least it is not yet possible " Chen added Chen Yuxin hopes that their products will be the "first shot" of peptide antibacterial, "because we are the first innovative peptide antibacterial drug to go to the clinical stage." The answer may be "next time" There is a saying that the ideal is very full, the reality is very bony So is entrepreneurship Chen Yuxin admitted that he had always thought he was ready to start a business, but this was not the case For example, the first difficulty he faced was lack of entrepreneurial experience At that time, Chen Yuxin just graduated from the school, but he didn't have much working experience in the enterprise "I come from a technical background I don't understand business operation, organizational structure, personnel management, etc I can only learn while doing So, in the early stage of our business, we found that there were new problems, and we quickly found a way to solve them Then we bought professional books to supplement knowledge, consulted professionals, and then promoted the implementation of professional solutions " For example, new drug research and development is "burning money", and funding has become another major challenge "In fact, when I came back to China to start my own business, I only had patents I didn't prepare for anything else Now I'm afraid At that time, I was catching up with the global financial crisis, and the financing environment was very bad It was useless for me to hold the patent, and I couldn't find the fund at all Finally, my family raised the first start-up fund for me - 2 million yuan " Chen Yuxin recalled that the next day is to continue to "change money", because he clearly knows that 2 million yuan is a drop in the bucket Soon after, Chen Yuxin found two angel investors, who invested 3 million yuan in total However, the anxiety of lack of money still bothered him "It's the most frightening time when the enterprise has just improved On the one hand, with more employees, the labor cost has come up; on the other hand, products have to be declared, animal experiments have to be done, and clinical trials have to be carried out, and the speed of "burning money" has risen sharply At that time, I was dreaming about whether the capital chain would break " Chen Yuxin said The pressure of insufficient funds is big enough, and the temptation to send them to your home is even more terrible In 2014, a large pharmaceutical company proposed to purchase Pulai pharmaceutical, and wanted to make it a polypeptide R & D platform for the enterprise Chen Yuxin finally refused, because he was very confident in his technology and products, and felt that all difficulties could be "shouldered" For example, the difficulty of technical research is much greater than expected At the beginning of his return, Chen Yuxin planned to complete the preclinical work of peptide drugs within three years But when they made peptide APIs into preparations, they found that the stability of the preparations was very poor, and the follow-up work could not be carried out at all "We found that peptides start to degrade as soon as they are combined with excipients of various preparations In order to develop high stability preparations, we spent almost three years and failed hundreds of times Making innovative medicine is "crossing the river by feeling the stone" There are no previous successful cases for reference, so I was very desperate at that time I felt that this matter might not be possible, and the previous efforts would be wasted " Chen Yuxin said In Chen Yuxin's view, the basic logic of entrepreneurship is to stand, bite and even if you have broken your teeth, the answer may appear in the "next try" Achieve inner satisfaction Since 2015, China has successively introduced new policies in promoting pharmaceutical research and development and improving the quality of pharmaceutical industry development, which has given great encouragement and support to entrepreneurs in the pharmaceutical field such as Chen Yuxin In 2014, Pulai applied for clinical approval and began to wait in line for review At that time, there were more than 400 products in front of it; in September 2015, the products just ranked 100, which coincided with the major special opportunity of "12th Five Year Plan" major new drug creation technology, and the opportunity of priority review came "After that, the product line-up speed is like riding a rocket," Chen said In March 2016, the products went to the meeting directly As the country continues to optimize the evaluation policy of innovative drugs, and the evaluation efforts are in line with the international standards, we have obtained phase I, phase II and phase III clinical approval documents at one time Compared with the previous procedures, the new deal saved almost three years As innovative drug companies, we are the direct beneficiaries of the policy " In Chen Yuxin's view, the current trend of China's pharmaceutical policy is to scour for sand, which gives Pulai more space "For example, the state has launched a consistency evaluation policy for generic drugs, and products with poor quality will be finished immediately This is a good thing, because all the left behind are high-quality products Only enterprises with innovation ability and high-quality production ability can survive " Chen Yuxin said frankly that in recent years, with the continuous breakthrough of medical technology and the introduction of favorable policies, China's pharmaceutical research and development is booming In the process, there was also a certain degree of irrational bubble, and a large number of pharmaceutical companies were involved in stampede in the capital "Not to be moved" is Chen Yuxin's general view of this phenomenon "The R & D route of an enterprise cannot be controlled by the market hot spots Only by focusing on what you are good at, can you achieve truly innovative results So we won't be involved in those concepts, although they are more likely to bring about financing and overvaluation " According to the current clinical progress, the first peptide antibacterial drug of Pulai pharmaceutical will be on the market in two to three years Chen Yuxin hopes that they can become the domestic leader in the field of peptide antibacterial drugs, so that more patients can use good drugs to alleviate the pain caused by the disease "I think the best way to realize the value of life is to make some achievements and satisfy myself from the bottom of my heart Just like now, every time I see the patients on trial get remission, I will have a sense of achievement It's a little contribution to mankind! "Chen Yuxin gave a rare" beating "and then smiled a little embarrassed.