Chime Biologics Bridges Innovation and Collaboration at Europe-China Biotech Business Forum 2024

November 4, Stockholm, Sweden – Chime Biologics, a leading global CDMO that enables its partners’ success in biologics, bridged Europe-Asia Biotech innovation and collaboration at the Europe-China Biotech Business Forum 2024, a BIO-Europe side event.

Bringing together senior pharmaceutical leaders to explore cross-border collaboration opportunities, the forum, co-sponsored by Duoning Biotech, Cytiva, and supported by Eleva, Hengyu Biotech, TopgeneBio, Department of Commerce of Hubei Province, and Biolake, discussed how China’s dynamic biotech ecosystem, paired with Europe’s world-class innovation track record, is driving growth and creating new opportunities for global partnerships.

A panel convened experts including Alan Harris, Senior Vice President of Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Konstantin Matentzoglu, Delegated Supervisory Board Member of Polpharma Biologics, and Tong Zhang, co-founder of VelaVigo, recognized the significant enhancement in China’s R&D capabilities over the next five to ten years, and explored the following questions: How should the development trends in China and Europe be viewed against this context? How could both sides deepen their cooperation to jointly promote innovation and development in the next five years? In addition, with European companies leading the pharmaceutical innovation pipeline, how can this complement China’s well-developed capabilities in biologics, especially antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs)?

Harris observed, “There are huge competencies in China, which are probably underutilized and underdeveloped.” He highlighted a “CIA” framework, noting that China has a large amount of underutilized expertise (Competence), investment (Cash), and a world-class pharmaceutical ecosystem (Competitive), combined with Innovation and Action, are driving innovation and global collaboration within the country.

Matentzoglu advised all parties to focus on what they excel at in cross-border collaboration and do what’s required to commercialize the product. He noted, “Things have changed so dramatically over the last decade so that Europe should maybe reconsider and not see China as a pure supply chain, but as a key enabler for certain technologies.”

Zhang elaborated on internationalization’s role in Chinese innovation and shared VelaVigo’s plans and experience from the perspective of an R&D-oriented and innovative pharmaceutical company. VelaVigo focuses on new technologies related to large molecules, including dual/multiple antibodies, ADCs, and new molecule types, to comprehensively cover the value chain of innovative drugs.

Xie shared Duoning’s future internationalization strategy, noting the company has been making plans based on local market conditions while setting up offices in the United States, Japan, Singapore, etc. He also mentioned that Duoning would target to provide customers with cost-effective products and services tailored based on international product design, application, and compliance considerations.

Zhu highlighted that Hengyu Biotech has a proven international cooperation and application track record and is keen to partner with Chime and other like-minded partners to provide stable, regulatory-compliant, and cost-effective one-stop solutions for biosafety testing and process validation for innovative biopharmaceutical companies.

Mike Ward, Global Head of Life Sciences and Healthcare Thought Leadership of Clarivate, provided an in-depth analysis of how innovation drives European success in global biotech markets. Another panel, featuring industry leaders such as Andrew Ng, Partner & Head of Healthcare of VMS Group, Björn Cochlovius, CEO of Eleva, Sofie Stille, VP & GM Resin and Technology of Cytiva, and explored the future of drug development, highlighting how emerging technology and risk-sharing models could address some of the potential challenges.

While the potential for Europe-China biotech collaboration is immense, several challenges remain. Differences in regulatory frameworks and process development to yield optimal outcomes must be carefully navigated. With its comprehensive pre-clinical, clinical, and commercial manufacturing solutions and a track record of Investigational New Drug (IND) enablement through New Drug Application (NDA)/Biologics License Application (BLA) filing, Chime Biologics is uniquely placed to help its clients navigate these challenges and leverage the complementary strengths of both regions for global growth.

Jimmy Wei, President of Chime Biologics, reflected on the significance of cross-border cooperation: “We organized this forum to meet face-to-face and better understand what is happening in the Chinese and European markets. With this deeper understanding, more business opportunities and partnerships will emerge. Pharmaceutical innovation in Europe and China’s rapidly developing biotechnology capabilities are a perfect match. Chime Biologics is honored to play a key role, as we strive to not only become the CDMO partner of choice for European pharmaceutical companies, but also to bridge the cross-border biopharmaceutical innovation gaps and facilitate greater global collaboration.”

About Chime Biologics

Chime Biologics is a global leading CDMO that has introduced the first modular biopharmaceutical plant KUBio in the world to empower its partners’ success in biologics in the whole process from cell line development to commercial manufacturing. Relying on cell line development and advanced technology development from our Shanghai Innovation Center and proven success in IND-enabling through BLA filing at its Wuhan plant, Chime Biologics is providing a one-stop CMC solution for biopharmaceutical customers around the world. We share a common goal to make cutting-edge biomedicines affordable and accessible to all patients globally, fulfilling its commitment to human health. For more information, please visit: www.chimebiologics.com.