Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Endurance RP Limited (Stock Code: 0575.HK) Announces 2021 Interim Results

 



Significant Milestones Achieved on the Commercialisation of Fortacin™ and Business Expansion



HONG KONG, Aug. 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Endurance RP Limited ("Endurance Longevity" or the "Company" and together with its subsidiaries, the "Group"; stock code: 0575.HK), a Hong Kong-based investment company specializing in growth and value-led investments in the healthcare and late-stage life science sector, is pleased to announce the unaudited consolidated interim results for the 6 months ended 30 June 2021 ("Reviewing Period").

Key Financial Highlights


As at 30 June 2021,


Profit attributable to the shareholders of the Company was approximately US$2.66 million (2020: loss of approximately US$27.16 million).


Shareholders' equity increased by 6.27% to approximately US$53.46 million (31 December 2020: US$50.31 million)

Financial Performance

The Group reported a profit of approximately US$2.66 million which was mainly attributable to: (i) an unrealised marked-to-market gain in respect of the Company's equity portfolio of FAFVPL of approximately US$12.18 million; (ii) a milestone payment of US$3.20 million, and (iii) an unrealised gain in respect of the Company's derivatives of approximately US$3.05 million; while being offset somewhat by: (iv) an amortisation charge of approximately US$11.15 million on the intangible assets, being non-cash items; and (v) the Group's operating expenses of approximately US$5.38 million.

Shareholders' equity increased to approximately US$53.46 million, an increase of approximately 6.27% as compared with that at 31 December 2020, with the increase being mainly attributable to the profit attributable to shareholders of the Company. As at 30 June 2021, the Group had approximately US$16.10 million in cash and listed securities and the gearing ratio (being long-term debts over total equity and long-term debts) was approximately 20.19% (31 December 2020: 21.23%).

The Group received US$2.88 million net of PRC withholding tax from Wanbang Biopharmaceutical, the Company's commercial strategic partner for China in respect of obtaining clinical trial approval for Senstendä (the marketing name of Fortacinä in Mainland China) from the Centre of Drug Evaluation (CDE) in China on 5 February 2021.

Significant Progress in Healthcare and Life Sciences Businesses

The Group's healthcare, life sciences and wellness investments are far less sensitive to macro-economic fundamentals and fluctuations and remain its core focus. Despite the difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Group remained active in strengthening its relationships and continuing its negotiations with potential commercial partners and stakeholders on our investment projects.

The Group has appointed a leading global marketing consulting firm to conduct comprehensive analysis of patients, physicians, and healthcare providers on their willingness to cover and level of price sensitivity for coverage for Fortacin™ across the US. The survey has confirmed that a price of US$90 to US$150 is sustainable for the proposed US presentation of Fortacin™. Further, the target product profile would result in over 80% being prepared to consider Fortacin™ as an effective treatment, an outstanding result. In respect of the US Phase II validation study, the clinical research organisation has successfully completed the prespecified data analysis from the 16 sites undertaken to validate the FDA mandated patient reported outcome (the "PRO") for premature ejaculation. Overall, the study confirms the safety and efficacy of Fortacin™. The new data will be used to refine the final Phase III RCT protocol, which is already prepared, and suitable clinical sites screen for expedient and good clinical practice enrolment. The Group anticipates submitting the study to the FDA by the end of August 2021 as another big step in commercialising Fortacin™ in the US. The Group is currently securing a partner just ahead of or while the Group conducts the Phase III trial.

Jamie Gibson, Chief Executive Officer of the Company commented, "We are excited to announce our first interim results under our new entity. We were able to perform strongly through to 30 June 2021 while operating in a difficult environment due to COVID-19, achieving a number of significant milestones. With our streamlined focus, sensible capital structure and redefined market position, we remain optimistic about the future prospects for the Group and its shareholders and will: (i) continue to pursue the successful commercialisation of Fortacin™ / Senstend™ as quickly as possible, with the Over-the-Counter (OTC) roll-out continuing, as well as in the remaining key markets of the US, China, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East; (ii) commercialise DLI's Young.AI mobile App and the Young.AI website, together with partnering with clinics, laboratories and insurance companies by offering its AgeMetric™ reports and access to its online platform; (iii) continue monitoring its investments in Venturex and West China; and (iv) continue with its existing strategy of pursuing strategic and value-led investments in the healthcare and life sciences sectors."

Meanwhile, Senstend™ obtained clinical trial approval from the CDE on 5 February 2021. Wanbang Biopharmaceutical will now focus its efforts with assistance from the Group towards commencement of the RCT in China. Wanbang Biopharmaceutical will commence manufacturing clinical supplies (both active and placebo) in late August 2021 from PSNW. The commercial scale up to increase the current batch size per each manufacturing run to 50,000 units from 15,000 units will now commence in September 2021 after the latest commercial batch has been manufactured in August 2021. Wanbang Biopharmaceutical has appointed a leading contract research organisation to undertake the phase III double blinded multi-centre RCT and the Group looks forward to undertaking this next critical step towards commercialisation of Senstend™ in China.

Orient EuroPharma has launched Fortacin™ in Hong Kong and Macau with limited supply as it will now not receive its full launch compliment until September 2021. Official launch of Fortacin™ in Taiwan will be in September 2021. In terms of other out-licensing opportunities, the Company is in discussions with its commercial strategic partners for the Middle East, India, North America and Latin America (LATAM) region.

The Group has continued to implement and integrate the acquisition of Deep Longevity, Inc (DLI), which completed in December 2020, which will serve as a key platform for the Group's expansion into the health and wellness sector. During the Reviewing Period, a core focus has been on DLI's three main business segments, being: (i) Direct to Consumer through its Young.AI app providing biological, behavioural, and psychological aging clock tracking and recommendations designed to slow down or reverse biological aging. DLI is also constantly developing and patenting new aging clocks utilising new data types; (ii) the provision of its AgeMetric™ biological age reports to clinics and medical doctors for a fee; and (iii) providing age prediction and recommendation services via software as a service (SaaS) AI and on-premises instalment to the life and health insurance companies.


About Endurance RP Limited (Stock code: 0575.HK)

Endurance Longevity is a diversified investment group based in Hong Kong currently holding various corporate and strategic investments focusing on the healthcare, wellness and life sciences sectors. The Group has a strong track record of investments and has returned approximately US$298 million to shareholders in the 24 years of financial reporting since its initial public offering in May 1997.

www.endurancerp.com








Friday, August 27, 2021

Insilico Medicine and 4B Technologies Announce Strategic Collaboration in Advancing Novel Drug Discovery for Neurodegenerative Diseases



 SHANGHAIAug. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Insilico Medicine ("Insilico"), an end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, and 4B Technologies Co., Ltd. ("4B Technologies"), a leading end-to-end innovative biopharmaceutical company focusing on nervous system diseases, signed a strategic collaboration agreement in advancing the development of innovative small molecule therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other major neurological diseases.

This strategic collaboration will enable Insilico's AI technology to be widely applied in various stages of R&D to speed up novel drug discovery by combining 4B Technologies' breakthrough science and cutting-edge platform technologies in CNS drug discovery and development. Both companies will work together closely in an effort to discover novel treatment for ALS through identifying high quality targets and therapeutic agents with an aim of improving the efficiency and probability of success to benefit patients worldwide.

ALS is a rapidly progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the five incurable diseases with no effective treatments to date and an average surviving duration of 3-5 years.   

"4B Technologies is a leading neurological diseases company, co-founded by Dr. Bai Lu, a renowned neuroscientist and professor at Tsinghua University, and Dr. Xiaoming Guan, former vice president of neurological diseases R&D at GSK. Insilico is an industry leader in AI-driven drug discovery with a track record of accelerated drug discovery process. From target to preclinical candidates, Insilico successfully nominated two novel compounds for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and kidney fibrosis within 24 months.  We have established collaborations with multiple leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Pfizer, Astellas, Merck, UCB, Janssen and Taisho. Now we are pleased to partner with 4B Technologies to address the unmet medical needs for the treatment of ALS. This collaboration will leverage Insilico's unique synthetic biology and synthetic chemistry AI platform and 4B Technologies' deep insights in targeting strategies, biology, translational research and clinical medicine in the field of neurological diseases to accelerate novel drug discovery for ALS," said Feng Ren, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Drug R&D at Insilico.

"Traditional drug R&D is a time-consuming and expensive process. It takes an average of 10 years and $2.6 billion for a novel drug to be developed. The application of AI technologies in drug discovery and development has made great progress in recent years and has the potential to transform the pharmaceutical industry by significantly shortening timelines and reducing cost. Neurodegenerative diseases including ALS pose great challenges in medical research and are one of our key focuses. 4B Technologies is establishing a broad ALS alliance with academia, hospitals, patient groups, and industrial partners. Our collaboration with Insilico will enable 4B to apply leading AI technology to expediate our R&D process, leverage strengths and synergy from both sides to develop breakthrough treatment of ALS," said Xiaoming Guan, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of 4B Technologies.

About Insilico Medicine

Insilico Medicine, an end-to-end artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery company, is developing artificial intelligence platforms. These platforms use deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers, and other modern machine learning techniques for novel target discovery and the generation of novel molecular structures with desired properties. Insilico Medicine is developing breakthrough solutions to discover and develop innovative drugs for cancer, fibrosis, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and age-related diseases.

Website: www.insilico.com

About 4B Technologies

4B Technologies was founded with its mission to focus on novel medicines for neurodegenerative diseases and neurological injuries. With deep insights in neurosciences and CNS drug discovery, we have developed a strategic framework to increase probability of success by tackling key challenges faced in CNS drug research and development, including targeting strategy, animal model development, basic-to-clinical translation, biomarkers, and clinical trial design. Through in-house drug discovery efforts as well as strategic alliance with academic and industrial partners, 4B Technologies has built and is advancing a pipeline of innovative medicines into the clinic to validate their therapeutic potentials. Our aspiration is to become a global leader in developing innovative medicines for neurological diseases.

Website: www.4btechnologies.com

Contact: pr@insilico.com

 

Source: Insilico Medicine

Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Insilico Medicine Announces an AI-driven PROTAC R&D Collaboration with Arvinas

 HONG KONGAug. 9, 2021-- Insilico Medicine is proud to announce an R&D collaboration with Arvinas (NASDAQ: ARVN). This strategic partnership will involve Insilico Medicine's AI-augmented platforms and close cooperation between Arvinas' and Insilico Medicine's scientists on novel PROTACs. The collaboration will include the design of transformative treatment modalities for existing and next-generation targets; and demonstrate the impact of combining AI with one of the most significant breakthrough technologies in drug discovery - PROTACs.


"Arvinas is the pioneer of PROTAC technology and a leader in protein degradation therapeutics. We look forward to collaborating with Arvinas in this innovative field and to building a lasting relationship," said Alex Zhavoronkov Ph.D., CEO of Insilico Medicine.


    In July the company announced the completion of a $255 million round led by Warburg Pincus and joined by over 25 high-profile investors, and in August,  it nominated the second preclinical candidate for kidney fibrosis.

About Insilico Medicine

Insilico Medicine, an end-to-end artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery company, is developing artificial intelligence platforms. These platforms use deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers, and other modern machine learning techniques for novel target discovery and the generation of novel molecular structures with desired properties. Insilico Medicine is developing breakthrough solutions to discover and develop innovative drugs for cancer, fibrosis, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and ageing-related diseases. Since its inception, Insilico Medicine has raised over $300 million from reputable financial, biotechnology, and information technology investors.



 For further information, images, or interviews, please contact pr@insilico.com.


Thursday, August 5, 2021

Insilico Medicine and Usynova Announce Strategic Partnership on Accelerating R&D of Small Molecule Innovative Drugs with AI

     SHANGHAIAug. 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Insilico Medicine, an industry leader in end-to-end artificial intelligence for target discovery, small molecule chemistry, and clinical development, and Usynova announced to reach strategic cooperation in advancing the development of novel therapies.



The agreement outlines a constructive framework where the two parties will combine the advantages of Insilico Medicine's AI-powered drug discovery platform with Usynova's experience in the small molecule innovative drug development to accelerate the development of small molecule innovative drugs, with a view to jointly addressing significant unmet medical needs and tackling novel and challenging targets in cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Insilico Medicine is a global leader in AI-powered drug discovery companies. Since 2014, Insilico Medicine developed the AI-powered drug discovery platform consisting of PandaOmics™ AI-powered novel target discovery engine, Chemistry42™ deep generative reinforcement learning system allowing for the de-novo design of novel molecules with the desired properties that do not exist in the known chemical space, and InClinico™, which predicts clinical trial outcome.

Usynova is an innovative enterprise on drug R&D, the founding team members of which come from multinational pharmaceutical enterprises and domestic CRO leading companies and possess rich experience in drug R&D. Focusing on the two major areas of autoimmune diseases and cancer, the enterprise has built platforms for small molecule chemical drugs and biomacromolecule drugs, developed several pipeline products at different R&D stages, and carried out two clinical trials. The cooperation between the two parties will accelerate the introduction of first-in-class and best-in-class small molecule innovative drugs to patients worldwide.

"China is on the path to becoming the source of truly innovative medicines for the world. We are very pleased to contribute to this important trend by partnering with the innovative biotechnology company, Usynova, to discover novel biomedicines utilizing the latest advances in next-generation artificial intelligence", said Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov, CEO of Insilico Medicine.

"We are honored to be a partner with Usynova, who takes the commitment to develop First-in-Class and Best-in-Class drugs. Insilico Medicine will make full use of the advantages of the AI-powered drug discovery platform, accelerate the R&D of small molecule innovative drugs of Usynova from the aspects of target screening, molecular design, compound synthesis, and work together with Usynova to provide subversive and efficient solutions for unmet clinical needs", said Dr. Ren Feng, the Chief Scientist of Insilico Medicine.

"Insilico Medicine has unique technical capabilities in target discovery and generative chemistry. We hope that the cooperation between the two parties can effectively improve the efficiency and accuracy of small molecule drug R&D. The combination of innovative drug companies and artificial intelligence (AI) technology platforms will definitely change the traditional model of innovative drug R&D in the future. Especially the fact that AI technology provides a new solution for discovering preclinical candidates compounds for novel and difficult targets. We are committed to explore an efficient drug R&D path jointly", said Dr. Hu Tao, the Chief Executive Officer of Usynova.

"Usynova's innovation focuses on the R&D in the fields of cancer and autoimmune diseases and aiming at meeting unmet medical needs. We are pleased to apply Insilico Medicine's cutting-edge AI technology platform to conduct in-depth explorations on novel target identification and drug development for novel and difficult targets. We are aiming to develop first-in-class drugs for the benefit of the cancer and autoimmune patients worldwide", said Dr. Peng Shengbin, the Chief Scientist of Usynova.

About Insilico Medicine

Insilico Medicine, an end-to-end artificial intelligence driven drug discovery company,develops artificial intelligence systems Pharma.AI(www.insilico.com/platform/)that utilize deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers, and other modern machine learning techniques for identify the novel target and generate new molecular structures with specific properties, and provides breakthrough solution for the discovery and development of innovative drugs for cancer, fibrosis, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and aging-related diseases. Since its inception in 2014, Insilico Medicine has reached strategic collaboration with more than 30 drug development companies in the United States, Europe, China, Japan and other countries and regions, and launched new multiple internal R&D pipelines for novel, difficult and previously undruggable targets.

About Usynova

Usynova Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Shanghai) is an innovative drug R&D enterprise established in January 2020. The enterprise focuses on the treatment of autoimmune diseases and cancer. With the establishment of small molecule drug platforms and biomacromolecule drug platforms, it currently has nearly 10 pipeline products at different R&D stages. Among these product, the indications of UA007 are chemotherapy-induced diarrhea (CID) and chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (CIN). the Phase IIa clinical trial of such product have been completed with excellent POC results, and multiple phase IIb clinical trials are ongoing currently. The product has a number of global patents, and has been funded by the special national project on major new drug R&D. CID is one of the main side effects of cancer chemotherapy, and it is also an important reason for patients to withdraw from chemotherapy. However, there are no effective therapeutic drugs for CID currently. Small molecule pipeline products for targets with poor druggability will also be advanced to the clinical stage in the next few years. The enterprise has established a complete team covering early drug discovery, protein drug production, antibody preparation, pre-clinical and clinical studies, and drug registration application.

Contact: pr@insilico.com

SOURCE Insilico Medicine Hong Kong Limited