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META Pharmaceuticals Inc. is the first commercial company in China and Asia to develop innovative drugs in the emerging field of immunometabolism, which targets the metabolic pathways of immune cells.
Established in August 2021, META Pharmaceuticals Inc. has a founding team with extensive experience from prestigious research hospitals in the United States, such as Weill Cornell Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. With a strong expertise in immunometabolism, the founders have spent years exploring the complex biological mechanisms that regulate immune cell metabolism and nutrient sensing. This rigorous research has led to a novel therapeutic strategy that modulates immune system function by manipulating the metabolic activity of immune cells.
META Pharmaceuticals’ cutting-edge approach has enormous potential for treating a wide range of chronic diseases caused by immune and metabolic system disorders. These include autoimmune diseases, cancer, metabolic disorders, and various age-related chronic conditions. By harnessing the therapeutic strategy developed by the founding team, META Pharmaceuticals aims to provide effective treatments for patients suffering from these debilitating diseases.
Autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, allergic asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and more, pose a significant global medical and economic challenge, affecting a large number of people. META Pharmaceuticals is committed to addressing these disease areas, recognizing the urgent need for better treatments. In the global pharmaceutical industry, autoimmune diseases rank as the second-largest therapeutic area, after cancer, with the market for drugs expected to reach $150 billion by 2025. This underscores the immense market opportunity and demand for new drugs in this field.
However, existing drug options for autoimmune diseases, such as large-molecule antibody drugs or small-molecule JAK inhibitors, have significant drawbacks. One major concern is the serious toxic side effects of these treatments. Moreover, the patient response rate to mainstream drugs for some common autoimmune diseases is unsatisfactory. Therefore, there is an urgent need for efficient and safe immunosuppressants.
META Pharmaceuticals Inc. addresses this challenge with its innovative immunometabolic strategy, a new biological theory that offers a more effective and safer solution for treating autoimmune diseases. The company has three promising pipelines in development, with the first one expected to undergo clinical filing in both China and the United States around 2024. META Pharmaceuticals is committed to advancing the field of immunometabolism and developing novel treatments to improve the lives of patients suffering from autoimmune diseases.
META Pharmaceuticals Inc. has discovered metabolic proteases as potential drug targets. To accelerate the development of original drugs, META Pharmaceuticals Inc. has partnered with Crystal Jade, a leading AI drug development company. Together, they aim to create a series of original drugs by translating research findings. These drugs have the potential to address the challenges of autoimmune diseases and offer new mechanisms and solutions within the major pathways of these conditions. By using new approaches and solutions, META Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Crystal Jade are dedicated to advancing the field of autoimmune disease treatment and providing relief to millions of patients worldwide.
META Pharmaceuticals Inc. is developing its META-1 small molecule inhibitor program, a first-in-class original drug product. The META-1 inhibitor could be a broad-spectrum drug for self-responsive diseases, comparable to Humira, which has annual sales of nearly $20 billion, and could capture the entire $100 billion market for these diseases.
With extensive expertise in immunometabolism and computer machine learning algorithms, META Pharmaceuticals Inc. has established an AI-assisted metabolic pathway drug target discovery platform. The platform aims to achieve intelligent analysis through multilayer group integration in drug research. It has developed and optimized AI models, conducted application analysis validation, and compiled a comprehensive professional domain database with hundreds of public datasets.
The platform is a powerful resource, providing data support and intelligent analysis models for META’s original drug pipeline. It helps to speed up the search and identification of new drug targets, advance the drug research process, and enable the transition from basic medical research to drug validation and product manufacturing.
XtalPi, a strategic partner of META Pharmaceuticals, offers computational, design, and synthesis capabilities in AI drug discovery. This partnership connects META’s research based on cellular and animal disease models with XtalPi’s AI computing capabilities, enabling close collaboration between front-end research and back-end computing technologies. This synergy accelerates the patent formation and clinical trial processes. META Pharmaceuticals aims to be a global leader in immunometabolic therapy in China and a pioneer in developing original drugs. Through this partnership, META seeks to provide safe and effective solutions for patients with autoimmune diseases. Together, META and XtalPi work to deliver innovative and impactful treatments that improve the lives of patients worldwide.
Ke Xu is a distinguished researcher with over a decade of experience in basic biomedical research. His focus lies in exploring the regulatory relationship between the immune system and metabolism, revealing the crucial role of nutrient metabolism in immune response regulation. Ke Xu's work has led to novel therapeutic strategies for self-immune diseases and cancer. His significant scientific contributions have been published in renowned journals such as Science and Immunity. Additionally, he has served as a consultant for PreScouter Inc. and provided valuable insights to leading biotechnology companies. With 9 SCI papers and over 1100 citations, Ke Xu's research has made a substantial impact in the field.
Anjin XianYu is an experienced neurobiologist and data scientist with 3 SCI publications to date. He has been accepted to Insight Data Science's Health Data Science program. He was a Senior Data Scientist and Director of Data Science at PatientsLikeMe before returning to China to start his own business.
Dr. Shuhao Wen is the co-founder and chairman of XtalPi and an adjunct professor at Zhejiang University. He has 11 years of study, research and work experience in Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of California and MIT, and has rich research experience and theoretical achievements in the fields of computational physics and quantum chemistry. He has published 32 papers in total and participated in and successfully declared 5 important patents and 3 PCT patents. In 2014, during his postdoctoral research at MIT, Shuhao Wen co-founded XtalPi with his partners and served as its chairman, leading multiple rounds of financing that accumulated more than $66 million (RMB 450 million), and leading a number of projects with world-leading pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer and SSCI, XtalPi has led several rounds of financing, and has facilitated many collaborations with world-leading pharmaceutical companies and research institutions, including Pfizer and SSCI.
Xiaowen Feng is a well-known family office investor and has been involved in the incubation and investment of several pharmaceutical unicorns including Kula Bio, Jingtai Technology, and METiS. Hsiao-Wen Feng was a postdoctoral fellow in Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. D. in chemical synthesis at the University of California, Berkeley and received his B.S. in Chemical and Molecular Engineering from Peking University.
Mr. Guoxing Wei is an early to mid-stage investor focusing on new consumption, new retail, and new healthcare. He has participated in and led investments in projects such as Baigoyuan, Love Recycling, Naixue's Tea, MicroEnquiry, Zhuozheng Medical, Scent Library, Zhong Xue Gao, Listen Research, Heymaet, and Longjingke. Mr. Wei Guoxing has been awarded the titles of F40 Young Investor of Qingke Group, 36 Krypton 2019 36 Amazing Investors Under 36, and Wave New Consumer 2021 Top 20 Most Discoverable Consumer Investors in China.
Ke Xu is a distinguished researcher with over a decade of experience in basic biomedical research. His focus lies in exploring the regulatory relationship between the immune system and metabolism, revealing the crucial role of nutrient metabolism in immune response regulation. Ke Xu's work has led to novel therapeutic strategies for self-immune diseases and cancer. His significant scientific contributions have been published in renowned journals such as Science and Immunity. Additionally, he has served as a consultant for PreScouter Inc. and provided valuable insights to leading biotechnology companies. With 9 SCI papers and over 1100 citations, Ke Xu's research has made a substantial impact in the field.
Anjin XianYu is an experienced neurobiologist and data scientist with 3 SCI publications to date. He has been accepted to Insight Data Science's Health Data Science program. He was a Senior Data Scientist and Director of Data Science at PatientsLikeMe before returning to China to start his own business.
Dr. Helmut Haning has been working in medicinal chemistry for about 30 years and has
led several successful drug programs: MR antagonist Finerenone, HIF PH inhibitor Molidustat, FGFR inhibitor Rogaratinib, FXIa inhibitor (asundexian, Phase II), several undisclosed Phase I and Phase II projects, marketed products include Verquvo®, Xarelto®(4.8B usd global sales in 2022), Adempas®. He led independent discovery of the marketed product vardenafil (Levitra®) and development of compounds for use in atherosclerosis and the central nervous system. He has also co-authored 18 publications in his field.
Prior to joining META, Dr. Helmut Haning was Global head of medicinal chemistry at Bayer Pharma, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Haning has nearly 30 years of experience in global drug discovery and team management, where he trained talented people in drug discovery and provided guidance to cross-functional teams in drug
discovery as well. At META, Dr. Haning is in charge of the company's medicinal chemistry,
corporate strategy, intellectual property and business development.
Graduate from the Weill Cornell Medicine-Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center joint
doctoral program, Dr.Cao is an inquisitive scientist. Dr. Cao studied under his doctoral advisor
Dr. Charles Sawyers, the pioneer of targeted cancer therapies, also the inventor of Gleevec -
the most effective CML treatment up-to-date. Dr. Sawyers is also a member of the U.S.
National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. College of Medicine, and the recipient of the Lasker Prize - the highest award in the medical sciences, as well as the Breakthrough Prize in the Life Sciences.
During his 10+ years of biomedical research and the training under
Dr.Sawyers, Dr. Cao has co-authored a total of 17 high-profile academic papers with more
than 3,500 citations. His research ranged from cellular molecular biology to tumor pathiology.
Dr. Cao also specializes in analyzing genetic databases of cancer patients through data
mining and using organoids and animal models to validate potential therapeutic targets. At
META, he is responsible for the establishment and research at our Hong Kong laboratory,
where META is exploring extra potential combination therapy areas (e.g., oncology, etc.) for
our core pipeline and providing efficient experimental validation of translational medicine for our multi-omics target discovery platform.
Mr. Zijun Wang, graduated from New York University with a bachelor's degree in
Mathematics and the University of Hong Kong with a degree in Master of Business
Administration, has rich experience in venture management and early stage investment.
From 2016 to 2020, Mr. Wang was in charge of TMT and biotech investment in Changshi
Capital, where he faciliated investments in Boqi Pet Services(NASDAQ: BQ) Mollybox, Good
Times, and etc. In early 2021, he participated in the launch of a local service platform, and led the completion of the project's Series A and A+ rounds of financing in July and October 2021, respectively, and was responsible for the project's capital planning and business strategy planning. Mr. Wang has also invested in innovative healthcare projects such as Ascentage Pharmaceuticals and New Horizon Health. He has a great passion for life sciences. At META, Mr. Wang is mainly responsible for the company's financing, general operation, business cooperation and other important company affairs.
Professor Ming Li is a renowned Chinese-American immunologist from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, one of the top cancer centers in the world, specializing in immunometabolism and cancer immunology. Prof. Ming Li has long focused on the interregulation of metabolic pathways, metabolites and immune cell signaling pathways, and based on this, he has discovered that metabolic pathways can be regulators of immune function. Professor Li's pioneering academic contributions in the field of immunometabolism have provided a solid academic foundation for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. In addition to the field of immunometabolism, Prof. Li has also made seminal contributions in the field of tumor immunity and immune cell development, and has published many influential papers in top academic journals as a corresponding author.
Dr. Jiang is currently responsible for the global market positioning and strategic development of Epistar. Dr. Jiang has 14 years of experience in biopharmaceutical R&D with expertise in external translational science collaboration and management between academia and industry. Prior to joining Epistar, Dr. Chiang served as Director of R&D Strategy and Associate Scientific Director for Genzyme Asia, leading cross-functional R&D collaborations and projects in Asia and conducting external consulting on R&D strategy and processes for various companies. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in hematology and oncology at Harvard Medical School and served as a project manager for the State Drug Administration of China (NICPBP, NIFDC), CFDA.
With more than 20 years of experience in academia and the pharmaceutical industry,
Dr.T rübel has extensive practice in international clinical development management across
multiple therapeutic areas, and served as Head of Cardiovascular at Bayer R&D, Senior Vice
President of Bayer R&D and Head of Innovation Management and Translational Medicine at
Bayer from 2008 to 2021. Under his leadership, he coordinated clinical and marketing
registration programs for well-known drugs such as Adempas and led several Phase 2/3
clinical programs within Bayer and in collaboration with Merck Sharp & Dohme.
Since early
2021, Dr. Trübel joins as Chief Medical Officer of AiCuris, an anti-infective biotechnology
company, and is responsible for a clinical Phase 1b/2a program related to Covid and a clinical
Phase 3 program for acyclovir-resistant HSV infections.
At META, Dr. Trübel provides overall
guidance for indication selection, clinical development planning and clinical operations.
Dr. Deyao Li graduated from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences majoring in Organic Chemistry(doctoral), and worked in small molecule synthesis and lead drug discovery projects at Wuxi AppTec. He mainly involved in kinase inhibitor development projects. Dr. Li has extensive experience in the preclinical phase of drug discovery, including lead chemical screening and lead compound optimization, and has been involved in the preparation of several IND submissions, including GMP manufacturing and GLP laboratory pharmacovigilance and toxicology studies. After joining the Harvard Dana-Farber Cancer Center, Dr.Li worked in Jun Qi (inventor of JQ1, a well-known BRD4 inhibitor) ‘s lab and worked on epigenetic small molecule protein degrading agents, including protein degrading agent synthesis, characterization, and activity evaluation. Subsequently, he joined the group of Minkui Luo at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he worked on the research and development of methyltransferase-related small molecule inhibitors, including molecular design and synthesis, enzyme activity testing, bioassay development, and animal efficacy evaluation. Currently, Dr. Li is an medicinal chemistry expert at META Pharmaceuticals.