The cross-border collaboration can lower the avg. yearly-increasing R&D research costs in the healthcare industry and accelerate the process. China's biopharma research companies are still at a growing status and waiting to take the lead.
Source from PR Newswire, Biodextris, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), I-Mab (天境生物), Jiangsu Nhwa Pharmaceutical (江苏恩华药业, Nhwa Pharma) signed the collaborative research agreement in Boston MA, U.S. on April 5th, 2019. The collaboration aims to develop a novel immuno-stimulatory therapy for neurological disorders.
The cross-border collaboration includes two clinical research institutes, BWH and I-Mab, and two pharmaceutical companies, Biodextris and Nhwa Pharma. Researchers and clinicians at the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at BWH will take the responsibility of biomarkers’ discoveries and validations, preclinical research, and early clinical studies. Biodextris, a Canada-based pharmaceutical company, will be responsible for CMC (chemistry, manufacturing, and controls) process for the novel therapy. Nhwa and I-Mab will provide financial, technical, regulatory, and other business support for the R&D, and even potential further commercialization.
I-Mab is a biopharmaceutical startup founded in 2016, which was valued at USD 1.1 billion from its latest series C financing of USD 220 million in June 2018. I-Mab has entered several R&B collaborations with clinical research institutes for developing novel immunotherapy.
The collaboration will study and use nasal immune modulator as an approach to treat certain neurologic disorders. Each party in the collaboration will use its advantages to accelerate the R&D process. BWH, a clinical research institute with a profound reputation and years of accumulated clinical research experience, will take the lead for research and analysis. Biodextris and Nhwa are experienced pharmaceutical manufacturers headquartered in Canada and China respectively. Nhwa is well-known in China for its CMC for neurologic therapeutics production and it is a Shenzhen Stock Exchange listed company.
Yet, the lead of the research is BWH, and I-Mab plays a supportive role in the R&D process. BWH is a clinical research institute and able to conduct clinical trials relying on its solid foundation of research abilities and years of clinical trial experience, while I-Mab lacks the experience on this side. Though collaborated with several pharmaceutical companies and hospitals, I-Mab is still a young incomer in the healthcare area waiting to build its own reputation.
The cross-border collaboration helps to lower the R&D costs and accelerated the process whether in clinical research status or potential commercialization stage. With experienced contractors’ participation, the new therapy’s materials have better support and can simultaneously approve for FDA and CFDA’s review when there is any progress.