Develop first-in-class Drug against King of Cancer
2021/07/28

On July 28, 2021, Shanghai Allist Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. (Allist) signed a technology transfer assignment with Fudan University, implying that Allist has full access to all research findings, patent rights, and rights and interests of development, registration, and sale at home and abroad of Phosphoglycerate mutase 1 (PGAM1) Inhibitor KH3 of the School of Pharmacy, Fudan University. Yuan Zhenghong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Fudan University and Secretary of the Party Committee of Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, Zhu Tongyu, Vice President of Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, Du Jinhao, Chairman of Allist and Sandy Mu, CEO of Allist attended the event and delivered speeches.


PGAM1 is an important metabolic enzyme in the glycolytic pathway which promotes glucose metabolism and energy production, and is involved in intracellular biomolecule synthesis and maintenance of redox homeostasis to accelerate tumor cell proliferation. The results of previous studies showed that the novel PGAM1 allosteric inhibitor KH3 has the advantages of high selectivity, high activity, and low toxicity, which can effectively inhibit tumor growth in several preclinical models of pancreatic cancer, especially in the PGAM1 high expression model. Besides, its drug toxicity can be tolerated.


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Pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose at the early stage and it features a high mortality rate due to its rapid progression and deterioration, which makes it the “king of cancers”. Currently, the mainstream treatments for pancreatic cancer include radiotherapy, molecular targeted therapy, and immunotherapy, but the effect is still unsatisfactory. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find new therapeutic targets or treatment strategies for it.


Chairman Du believes that top universities and colleges are the major force in scientific research and innovation of pharmacy in China. PGAM1 Inhibitor KH3, engineered by the School of Pharmacy of Fudan University, a leading example of high-level research-oriented Chinese universities with a great international reputation, together with the team led by Professor Shen Baiyong of Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University, is expected to be a First-in-Class (FIC) anti-cancer drug originally developed by China.


Therefore, this cooperation is of great importance for Allist, which is devoted to the development of FIC drugs and BIC drugs. Chairman Du states that both Allist and Fudan University are shouldering the responsibility for the rejuvenation of China; In the future, we hope to carry out deeper cross-border innovative cooperation with Fudan University to make new contributions to the construction of Shanghai’s Science and Innovation Center and China’s high-level scientific innovation.


Yuan Zhenghong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Fudan University and Secretary of the Party Committee of Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, pointed out in his speech that R&D of original drugs is the key path for us to reverse the long-term dependence on the foreign introduction and imitation and to break the dilemma of affordability to the latest drugs, and it is also the key link in bio-medicine which must be broken through. The R&D of original drugs, however, especially those first-in-class drugs, is very arduous, with a large investment, long period and high risk. Yuan said that Allist and the research team of Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University (SMCFU) started cooperation at an early stage, fully reflecting Allist’s extraordinary wisdom, courage, and the determination to focus on independent innovation; SMCFU will further strengthen the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, shorten the path of transformation of achievements, and implement comprehensive measures to encourage more scientific researchers to transform more findings into clinical applications, including innovative drugs; and it is expected that more scientific research findings of SMCFU will be transformed into new drugs for the treatment of diseases and then benefit people’s health in the future.


On Jun 30 this year, Allist reached the exclusive authorization agreement with the US’s ArriVent Biopharma, Inc. for the global development and commercialization of Furmonertinib (except Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao SAR and Taiwan), which is independently developed by Allist. The technology transfer cooperation with Fudan University is another milestone for Allist’s R&D of original drugs, which highlights its strategy of combining the advantages of digging the value of core products, enriching the content of under-research products and importing potential FIC and BIC products. Sandy Mu stated that we will fully unleash the potentials of KH3 as an original drug and work for the breakthrough in the clinical treatment of pancreatic cancer to provide domestic and global patients with a world-class innovative drug originating in China as soon as possible.