Supported by Capital, the Application of mRNA Technology has Become a Hot Field in China

In the middle of August, Abogen Biosciences announced that it had completed a third round of financing with its total amount exceeding 700 million US dollars, which set a new record for single financing before IPO of Chinese biopharmaceutical companies. In April this year, Abogen Biosciences announced that it had completed a second round of financing with 600 million yuan, which was mainly used for the development of mRNA innovative drugs. Added with this round of financing with a total amount of more than 700 million US dollars, Abogen Biosciences's leading position will be further enhanced in the field of mRNA in China.

Preliminary attempt of mRNA technology in the field of COVID-19 vaccine

With the outbreak of global COVID-19, mRNA technology has been applied for the pandemic prevention and control. In December 2020, the world's first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech obtained the emergency use authorization from FDA, and the vaccination can be available worldwide. In the middle of August this year, FDA officially approved the listing application of it, which is used to protect people aged 16 and up from the infection of COVID-19.

Since vaccination, mRNA vaccine has been available in 120 countries and regions worldwide. The successful application of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine makes mRNA technology ascend to the frontier in the field of medicines. In late February 2021, mRNA vaccine was ranked among the "Top 10 Breakthrough Technologies" selected by MIT Technology Review.   

In China, mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (ARCoV), jointly developed by Abogen Biosciences, Academy of Military Medical Sciences and Walvax, was officially approved for clinical trials by National Medical Products Administration in June 2020, becoming the first mRNA vaccine approved for clinical trials in China. At present, Phase I and Phase II clinical research of mRNA vaccine has been completed. On July 21, this mRNA vaccine registered Phase III clinical trial in Chinese Clinical Trial Register, which is the first Phase III clinical trial in China for domestic mRNA vaccine.

It is worth noting that besides mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, other pipelines of Abogen Biosciences, such as mRNA herpes zoster vaccine, are going to enter the IND stage.

Supported by capital, the field of mRNA innovative drugs is popular.

As one of the Top 10 Breakthrough Technologies in 2021, mRNA technology has stepped onto the historical stage since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. It started with vaccines, but its significance is much more than that. As a paradigm of the third wave of drugs in the world, it also shows great potential in other fields, such as tumor immunity and rare disease treatment. The primary attempt of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine once again ignited the industry's expectation for this technology with market and capital support.

Source: public data compilation

According to incomplete statistics, since July this year, five financing projects have been carried out in the field of mRNA innovative drugs in China, including Abogen Biosciences, Innorna, Immorna, Kactus and Proxybio. The largest one was the financing of Abogen Biosciences in August, with a total amount exceeding 700 million US dollars.

Overview of domestic self-developed mRNA innovative drugs development enterprises

The ravages of SARS-CoV-2 made the whole world realize the great potential and commercial value of mRNA technology, and also greatly accelerated the commercialization process of this technology. At present, most of the domestic enterprises and wholesale medical supply companies developing mRNA innovative drugs were established in recent years and are still in the primary stage. According to statistics, there are 9 innovative enterprises focusing on R&D of mRNA drug in China, mainly including StemiRna, Abogen Biosciences, Immorna, RNAcure and so on. StemiRna is the first mRNA pharmaceutical company in China, and other companies were established (or enter into mRNA field) after 2018.

Source: public data compilation

Among these domestic enterprises, Abogen Biosciences has mastered the technical details of the whole process and become the leader of developing mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in China. Innorna designed and built thousands of ionizable phospholipid libraries, and devoted itself to finding the optimal solution of LNP to complete mRNA delivery through selecting different application scenarios. Immorna is committed to developing innovative drugs based on mRNA platform, and its self-replicating mRNA core platform technology is at leading role worldwide. It has wide range of potential application fields, including tumor therapeutic drug, personalized tumor vaccines, infectious disease vaccines, rare disease treatment and many other fields; LIVERNA has its own mRNA production and drug delivery platform. In the middle of March this year, mRNA COVID-19 vaccine developed by it has obtained the Permission for Drug Clinical Trail issued by National Medical Products Administration, becoming the third domestic mRNA COVID-19 vaccine after Abogen Biosciences and StemiRna. Rhegen is developing 9 kinds of preventive mRNA vaccines, conducting 7 Phase I studies, and also developing targeted delivery technology without vectors. Longuide owns the patent of mRNA nano-delivery technology, and conducts extensive and in-depth research on COVID-19 vaccine.

About  the Author:    

Xiaoyaowan, a pharmaceutical industry practitioner, a word carrier in the We-media era focusing on changes of the pharma industry.