A few ways ago, Guangzhou LBP Medicine Science & Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "LBP") announced an exclusive strategic cooperation with Shanghai Biointron Technology Co. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Biointron") in the field of immunohistochemistry. In the meantime, Shanghai LBP Diagnostic Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai LBP"), jointly funded by LBP and Biointron, was formally established, which focuses on pharmaceutical company services and immunohistochemical companion diagnostics business.
LBP and Biointron join forces to open up the development and market access of immunohistochemical antibodies
According to the cooperation agreement, LBP and Biointron have reached an exclusive strategic cooperation to jointly establish Shanghai LBP Diagnostic Technology Co. Ltd. LBP will be the sole partner of Biointron in the field of companion diagnostics based on the immunohistochemical technology. The business of LBP Shanghai is pharmaceutical company services and development of companion diagnostics (CDx) kits based on the immunohistochemical technology.
As a company deeply engaged in pathological diagnosis for 17 years, LBP has established technical platforms such as liquid-based cytology (LBP), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), immunohistochemistry (IHC) and pathological artificial intelligence, covering the screening and diagnosis of dozens of cancer types, and is one of the in vitro diagnostic companies with the most complete technical platforms and the widest coverage of cancer types in the domestic pathological diagnosis industry. Shanghai LBP will be responsible for conducting early stage R&D testing services for large molecule innovative drugs, drug companion diagnostics development services, and registration application of companion diagnostics Class III medical device kits.
As an industry leader focusing on early antibody discovery services, Biointron will be responsible for the originator development and initial screening (cell lines) of antibodies based on IHC assays, as well as business development for pharmaceutical company customers.
Cai Xiangting, Chairman of LBP, said, "As a leading company in antibody development CRO services, Biointron has accumulated powerful antibody development capabilities and drug company resources; as a leading company in pathological diagnosis, LBP has accumulated profound technical development and marketing capabilities in the field of pathological diagnosis over the years. This strategic cooperation opens up the closed loop from R&D to market, creating a multiplier effect of win-win cooperation."
Cha Changchun, Chairman of Biointron, said, "LBP has been deeply involved in pathological diagnosis for many years and is quite experienced in the development and commercialization of IHC products. Biointron has been focusing on the R&D services for antibody discovery, with the aim of accelerating antibody discovery and enabling the industrial eco-chain. We believe that this cooperation with LBP will jointly promote the rapid realization of domestic companion diagnostics reagents with independent intellectual property rights, and will more powerfully empower drug development enterprises in translational medicine."
LBP have advantages in IHC companion diagnostics, which will reshape the IHC market pattern
In recent years, with the development of "precision therapy", "individualized medicine" and "targeted therapy" in the clinical field, especially in the field of tumor treatment, the concept of "targeted medication, diagnosis first" is gradually recognized by innovative pharmaceutical companies, clinics and patients. Companion diagnostics can provide information on patients' response to specific therapeutic drugs, which helps identify patient population that can benefit from a certain therapeutic product, thus improving patients' treatment efficiency and reducing unnecessary treatment expenses; for innovative pharmaceutical companies, companion diagnostics can help pharmaceutical companies screen out suitable patients for medication, improve the success rate of clinical trials of innovative drugs, and help innovative drugs be approved at lower cost and higher efficiency.
The research and development of macromolecular innovative drugs for tumors has been exploding in recent years, which has prompted the market of IHC companion diagnostics for detecting protein targets to enter the eve of the explosion. According to the estimation of Huaan Securities, under the background of accelerated approval of targeted drugs and immunotherapy, the scale of China's companion diagnostics market shows an exponential growth trend. In 2019, the market scale reached 2.722 billion yuan, with the growth rate rising year by year, and exceeding 30% in the past years.
As a morphological diagnostic technology at the protein level, the IHC market scale is expanding with the increasing demand for precision diagnosis of tumors and companion diagnostics of targeted medication. In recent years, LBP has been increasing the research and development efforts of the IHC product line and improving the IHC R&D evaluation system and quality control system. As of the end of 2021, the Company has successfully developed fully automated IHC staining machines and 201 primary antibody products, and has obtained 2 Class III registration certificates and 301 Class I product filing certificates for this product line, ranking among the top in the industry in terms of the number of medical device filing certificates or registration certificates obtained. The Company's IHC product business is developing rapidly and is an important R&D and market expansion direction of the Company in the future.
LBP has joined hands with Biointron to target the IHC companion diagnostics market for macromolecular antitumor drugs, and is expected to reshape the domestic IHC market pattern through the companion diagnostics business.
