Xingjuan (Jane) Chao

As we enter Biotech Month, exciting developments are on the horizon for Taiwan's biotech industry. Over the past decade, Taiwan's emerging biotech companies have successfully navigated challenges and are now leading the industry into the "third wave." With 60 companies spanning drug development, CDMO, generics, distribution services, and health products, the sector is set to attract both domestic and international investors. Taiwan's biotech index has consistently outperformed those in Hong Kong and the U.S. Since 2020, it has surged by 62%, compared to a mere 14% rise in the Nasdaq Biotech Index and a 42% decline in Hong Kong's Hang Seng Biotech Index. The total market value of listed biotech companies in Taiwan has grown from $23 billion in 2019 to $43 billion by the end of 2023, with revenue climbing from $7.1 billion to $9.7 billion during the same period. Individual company successes, such as overseas licensing deals, market expansions, strategic acquisitions, and new product developments, have driven this impressive performance. Key characteristics of this third wave include a high acceptance of new technologies and innovative treatments. While traditional small molecule drugs account for 67% of global R&D, in Taiwan, they represent only 58%, with the remainder comprising advanced treatments like monoclonal antibodies, bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, fusion proteins, stem cell therapies, and nucleic acid drugs. This highlights Taiwan's rapid adoption of cutting-edge treatments. Additionally, the surge in pre-IPO companies signals a new wave of listings. Since 2008, the number of listed biotech companies has grown from 35 to 133, with the growth rate slowing in the past five years. However, the number of pre-IPO companies has significantly increased to 99, indicating an impending boom in new listings in Taiwan's capital market. Stay tuned for more exciting news and opportunities in the biotech sector this month!

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Ryu Seung Woo, Ph.D., our lead medical geneticist, published a paper entitled "High prevalence of?ALPK3?premature terminating variants in Korean hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients" (https://lnkd.in/gCujZ3mJ) Many people in South Korea (about 1 in 300) have a heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), where the heart muscle thickens.?Variants in the ALPK3 gene are associated with a severe childhood form of autosomal recessive HCM, but recent studies have reported that monoallelic premature termination variants (PTVs) in ALPK3 increase the risk of autosomal dominant HCM in adults. However, these studies mostly involved Europeans, so our team investigated whether this variant also affects Koreans. We compared 2,366 Korean patients with nonsyndromic HCM to three independent population databases: East Asian population from the gnomAD v4.0 database, Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES) database,? Korean Variant Archive (KOVA2) database, 3billion Korean exome database.? We observed that the monoallelic PTV of ALPK3 was?more common?in Korean HCM patients, with an odds ratio of 15.33, similar to the odds ratio of 16.11 reported in a previous study. ALPK3 PTV carriers may have?an increased risk of developing adult-onset HCM, regardless of ethnicity. This finding highlights the importance of reporting ALPK3 PTV variant in the diagnostic testing for non-syndromic HCM. 3billion’s data analysis using this large Korean cohort is leading the way in understanding the genetic underpinnings of HCM in East Asian populations and will help pave the way for more targeted treatment and prevention measures.

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We've been in the planning for months and today was the day! ConcertAI, working closely with our colleagues at NVIDIA Healthcare, our next generation Clinical Trial Optimization solutions suite are being presented at the NVIDIA AI Summit in Washington D.C. Our CARAai platform utilizes an array of NIM microservices, including LLMs specifically trained on our multi-modal real-world data; SLMs in micro-focused workflows demonstrating their astonishing speed and efficiency; and multiple AI Agents executing highly complex tasks ranging from the roles of clinical molecular geneticist to clinical protocol authoring -- the most accurate and highest performance solution built to date, operating on the broadest scope and highest depth oncology datasets ever presented. This is the first in a series of Generative, Predictive, and Agentic AI solutions from ConcertAI launching in 2025. #aisummit #oncology #oncologytrials #ai #concertai

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It's very?encouraging to see that more and more countries are understanding the potential for individualized medicines to solve the rare disease global health crisis if the necessary regulatory and reimbursement changes can be made. Thank you to Japan's?Nikkei Biotechnology & Business and?Aya Kubota for so thoroughly covering Mila's story, the Rare Therapies Launch Pad, EveryONE Medicines, Inc. and the growing movement to make individualized medicines a mainstream way of treating disease. https://lnkd.in/gVAnbKBV

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Excellent article on how biotech investors approach early-stage asset due diligence—which unsurprisingly has strong parallels with how we approach late-stage asset diligence. Early-stage investors forecast the potential of these parameters to translate into clinical outcomes; late-stage investors evaluate the coalescence of these properties into the outcomes generated (and the likelihood that they can reproduce those outcomes). Great read for anyone evaluating or building a drug development program—thanks Aimee Raleigh and Atlas Venture #biotech #pharma #venturecapital #duediligence

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New gene editing technique…

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Risk v. Return Investment Profile: ImmunoPrecise Antibodies Ltd.(NASDAQ: IPA $0.625) CFP has had the opportunity to review Carl Kestens' Fair Value Analysis of ImmunoPrecise(attached below). CFP would encourage all of you to review it as well. CFP's key takeaways and comments are: 1. ImmunoPrecise has a Market Cap of approximately $18 million USD, which is extremely cheap relative to any market evaluation technique you use. 2. IPA has several potential growth drivers that have yet to deliver value to the company. 3. We agree that many investors have given up(lost patience) on the prospects of any of these potential events will actually be achieved. Expectations of Investors have not been met by the Company to date. Herein may lie the opportunity moving forward... 4. IPA has finally addressed its non-existent Capital Markets Strategy with an experienced, and seasoned group out of New York City over the last couple of weeks. 5. The NYC Group is also addressing the Company's Communication, Media, and Investor Relations Strategy. The new messaging(which should have always been in place) is under promise, and over deliver(exceed expectations) go forward. CFP has already seen improvement in the messaging to "simplify" the story to prospective investors. 6. The investment risk/return profile today looks very compelling. It reminds me of some old investment advice: "buy when everyone is selling and sell when everyone is buying." Disclaimer: This is posted for information purposes only. Please consult your investment professional for investment advice. Capital Find Partners owns shares in ImmunoPrecise. IPA (ImmunoPrecise Antibodies) BioStrand (a subsidiary of IPA) InterSystems Quantum Media Group, LLC #LENSai #Biotech #ai #HYFTs #HYFTTechnology #drugdiscovery #healthcare #pharma #personalizedmedicine #omics #AIDrugDiscovery #systemthinking #bioinformatics #antibodies #machinelearning #multiomics #LLMs #datascience #computationalbiology #nlp #ontologies #semantics #knowledgegraphs #lifesciences #bigdata #informationinformationdilemma #patternrecognition #insilico #molecularbiologists #aminoacids #dna #rna #HYFTpatterns

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InduPro raised an $85M series A (https://lnkd.in/gnPMq2pP). Exciting to see protein sequencing + AI enabling the discovery of new protein-led cancer treatments. "Our MInt platform leverages deep learning analysis of proprietary protein microenvironment and membrane proteomic data to define the architecture of the cell surface proteome across different target classes and indications.?This allows us to identify novel targets and co-target pairs for selective tumor targeting (bispecifc ADCs and TCEs) or immunological synapse modulation (bi/multispecific mAbs)."

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?? #portfolioupdate ?? Our latest portfolio company is Tamarind Bio, based in San Francisco. Founded in November 2023 by by Deniz Kavi & Sherry Liu who met at Stanford, Tamarind Bio is revolutionizing drug discovery possibilities in the biotech industry. Their innovative platform offers no-code, user-friendly computational biology tools for drug discovery, focusing on protein design, molecular docking, and structure prediction. These tools require no initial setup, enabling scientists to accelerate their research effortlessly. Tamarind Bio was selected for the Winter 24 cohort of Y Combinator. With over a thousand freemium pilot users from top-tier academic institutions worldwide - including Oxford, Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, and the University of Cambridge - Tamarind Bio is poised to transform the drug development landscape. The most recent inbound paid users from the National Institute of Health provide another solid endorsement of Tamarind Bio's growing reputation as a truly remarkable tool for researchers. Learn more about our latest addition to our portfolio: https://www.tamarind.bio/ #venturecapital #vcfund #tamarindbio #treeoVC #biotech #bioinformatics?

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It was great to gain valuable insights at the 4th Asia Summit on Global Health (#ASGH), especially during the panel discussion with Paul Li, Zongli Zheng and Justin Pak Heng Chan on how ITVF and VC funds can support startups. #healthcare #biotech #globalhealth #venturecapital #hongkong

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?? Unlocking the Fountain of Youth: Meet the Startup Transforming Aging! ?? Age may be inevitable, but what if we could combat its effects? Imagine using antibiotics to prevent aging – sounds futuristic, right? Not for Felix Wong and his team at Integrated Biosciences. With $17M in funding, they're pioneering AI-driven drug development to tackle age-related diseases head-on. ?? Powered by cutting-edge research, this startup is pushing boundaries in the fight against aging. Led by the brilliant Wong and backed by a seasoned team, they're not just talking about change – they're making it happen. ?? Optogenetics, high-throughput screening, and innovative drug programs – Integrated Biosciences is not holding back. Their work is not just groundbreaking; it's shaping the future of healthcare. Ready to defy aging? Join the movement led by this trailblazing startup. Who knows, they might just hold the key to a healthier, more vibrant future. Let's embrace the possibilities of tomorrow together. #AgingRevolution #BioInnovation

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I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Radar Therapeutics, dedicated to making programmable, safe, "smart" #mRNA-based therapies that only get activated in the right cells, at the right time. Working with Katherine Jones, Sarah Chesemore, and others at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we witnessed how Moderna and BioNTech SE/Pfizer catapulted mRNA therapies onto the world stage with unprecedented speed, saving millions of lives. ? At Radar, we want to bring this promise beyond vaccines into the most complex therapeutic compartments by solving one of the biggest problems for these therapies: making sure these mRNAs only reprogram the right cells in the body, avoiding potentially toxic off-target effects. We are committed to making therapies with the highest bar of safety, and widely accessible to patients that need them. I was incredibly lucky to meet my co-founder Eerik Kaseniit (thank you Anna-Julia Storch), while at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Eerik was obsessed with the problem of precisely targeted, timely and controlled regulation of mRNA translation. Alongside Stanford Prof Xiaojing Gao and MIT Prof Jim Collins, we decided to direct those efforts towards saving lives by starting Radar Therapeutics. We attracted the brilliant minds Svetlana Lucas, David Schaffer, and Eric Klein along the way. We are grateful to NFX, Eli Lilly and Company, Biovision Ventures, and KdT Ventures for taking the lead on this round, alongside BEVC, Pear VC, ARTIS Ventures, Ten VC, Elementum Ventures, Emcure Pharmaceuticals Limited, SALT, Conscience VC, and more. Here’s to a future where we can program therapies to rewrite any disease with utmost safety and accuracy. I’ll be at #BIO2024 for anyone looking to connect! Sharing some information about the company here: Endpoints News - https://lnkd.in/g4MQT245 Firstword Pharma - https://lnkd.in/gq3heWsE Genetic Engineering News - https://lnkd.in/gNPDfHEs Chemical & Engineering News - https://lnkd.in/gUx8ijmY Longevity Technology - https://lnkd.in/gRwdtiKx PBR- https://lnkd.in/gvUG_c5M Businesswire - https://lnkd.in/gcv88QAM Alix Marduel Vasudev Bailey Asset Abdualiyev Shan-Lyn Ma Wesley Barrow Pioneer Fund Jackie Benson Shannon Dahl Jackie Papkoff, Ph.D. Nat Kolber Jon Levin Ilya Strebulaev StartX Ron Boger Howard Rosen

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I believe we should do more to bring traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to market. The three biggest issues holding it back are complexity (e.g., Qiliqiangxin has active 11 ingredients), standardization, and market exclusivity (lack of patent protection). Surprisingly so some, the lack of patent protection is not a problem for TCM in my opinion. The secret is that generic wannabes will be unable to match the chemical fingerprint of botanical drug. The double-edge sword is that the drug maker also has to match is own chemical fingerprint batch after batch. Modern controlled environment agriculture can solve this issue and enable standardization and batch-to-batch consistency. #Phytome is an example of a company focusing on this issue. FDA has recognized the issue of complexity and does not require a well defined MOA. I probably would not start with Qiliqiangxin because of the number of actives. However, there are over 11,000 different plants used in hundreds of different TCMs. If we cherry picked the top 1%, we would make a very successful company. https://lnkd.in/e3GigdG3

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Without automation, it will be hard for all those new NGS users to get reliable performance. And at only 20 tests/week, it's hard to justify the CapEx and other fixed costs of automation. If only there were a more convenient and reliable way to automate molecular workflows than a big liquid handler...

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"????????-?????????????? ???????????????? ???? ?????????? ?????? ???????? ?????????? ??????????!"??? That's not our claim, it’s a generous recognition from ?? Ming "Tommy" Tang, Director of Computational Biology at Immunitas Therapeutics. These last few months of working with Immunitas have been so fulfilling and rewarding- finding and harmonizing data for solid tumors. We boosted Immunitas's data discovery speed by 50% by delivering top-tier datasets encompassing transcriptomics, cytometry, and CRISPR screening. ?? This achievement was made possible by our innovative approach- blending the capabilities of our AI-first platform with humans-in-the-loop model. By synergizing cutting-edge technology with human expertise, we were able to enhance both efficiency and accuracy. Thank you, Tommy, we're thrilled to continue serving curated data, so you can focus on the breakthroughs. Cheers to more wins in bioinformatics, one dataset at a time!?? #dataharmonization #solidtumors #lifesciences

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Investment, therapeutic viability, and next-gen. technologies... That's what the cell therapy field needs. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Jason C. Foster of Ori Biotech recently on their podcast to talk all things cell therapy, the enabling technologies that support this modality, and the need for more investment. What did we touch on (and link to full podcast below)? Investors needing to see a return when investing in cell therapies. Need to bring manufacturing costs down to expand access. Next-gen. tools to create better, more robust therapies. Purpose-built therapies require purpose-built tools! Our consulting practice, how we help our clients, and how we view the field of advanced therapies. We take a differentiated approach to tracking, following, and mapping key trends across advanced therapies to bring novel, business-impacting insights to our clients. Want to discuss any of the above? Where the field of cell therapies are going? What it means for your own development pipeline? Reach out and let me know what you think in the comments! #celltherapy #venturecapital #consulting https://lnkd.in/g7SH9FAU

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Glad to share that Insilico Medicine delivered a second preclinical candidate for solid tumor treatment, for their collaboration with Chinese pharmaceutical giant Fosun Pharma. I invested in Insilico Medicine as a business angel when it was just starting with a bold vision, but now the company is a powerhouse of AI-driven drug discovery! The collaboration with Fosun Pharma dates back to January 2022. Then, Fosun Pharma identified four targets of interest, including a key target involved in DNA damage repair mechanisms, which was selected for the preclinical candidate compound in this program. Insilico's R&D team analyzed and validated this target using PandaOmics an AI target identification engine, along with Life Star 1, an AI-driven robotics lab. Subsequently, scientists employed Chemistry42, a generative chemistry engine, to create and design compounds specifically for this target. A couple of words about the previous program of this collaboration. Just one month into the collaboration in 2022, Insilico Medicine delivered the first preclinical compound for the QPCTL program, which is now undergoing a Phase I clinical trial in China and has recently administered the first dose to a patient for the treatment of advanced malignant tumors. A benchmarking analysis by BiopharmaTrend recently demonstrated the record-breaking dynamics of nominating drug candidates and clinical candidates via AI-driven approach. I link the analysis in the comments. #drugdiscovery #artificialintelligence #genAI Alex Zhavoronkov Alex Aliper Image credit: Insilico Medicine. In the photo, one of the robots operating in the Life Star 1 fully robotized lab.

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RegCell Featured in Forbes Japan ? We recently had the opportunity to discuss the potential of Japanese scientific discoveries to transform healthcare with Forbes Japan. Japan is the origin of many leading life science discoveries, but these have yet to be fully appreciated globally. RegCell is an example of a potentially transformative company based on the discovery of regulatory T-cells (Tregs) by its scientific founder, Professor Shimon Sakaguchi. It represents his efforts to translate this discovery into a leading therapeutic platform by solving critical challenges that have limited the potential of Tregs to become living drugs. These improvements include the ability to recapitulate key Treg epigenetic features believed to result in Treg imprinting, which creates regulatory Tregs that retain high levels of in vivo persistence and suppressive functionality. The loss of these critical Treg epigenetic signatures results in Treg impairment and loss of suppressive properties associated with autoimmunity. Also, the RegCell epigenetic reprogramming platform can create reprogrammed Tregs that should precisely copy the autoreactive antigen fingerprint causing autoimmunity, including multiple antigens and unknown antigens. ? Check out the full article to learn more about the leading scientific discoveries emerging from Japan and the support we have received from UTEC - The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners. https://lnkd.in/gSZCvm_s

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RESISTANCE IS NOT AN OPTION

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