Huya and China Medical City Sign Alliance to Exploit Country’s Promising Pharma Projects

Huya Bioscience shook hands on a strategic alliance designed to help accelerate the development of promising pharmaceutical R&D originating in China’s Taizhou National Medical Hitech Development Zone. The deal with the Taizhou business park, which is also known as China Medical City (CMC), gives Huya first rights to collaborate on new R&D by its pharmaceutical companies and to partner global development of promising drug projects. The agreement follows just weeks after Huya sealed a partnership with the School of Chinese Materia Medica of the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (BUCM).

CMC is the first national level industrial development zone dedicated to medical and pharmaceutical industries, Huya points out. The business park includes top universities, research institutes, and companies. CMC also houses specialist R&D centers including the CAS Protein Engineering Research Center, the Vaccine Engineering Center, and macromolecule and small molecule R&D platform facilities.

Huya was established in 2004 specifically to facilitate and accelerate the global development and commercialization of pharmaceuticals originating in China. Headquarterd jointly in San Diego and Shanghai, the organization has established wide-reaching collaborations with academic and commercial biopharmaceutical partners in China.

Huya identifies promising preclinical and clinical stage compounds in China, helps to promote further research by its Chinese partners, and licenses the most promising compounds to provide a bridge into the international development process.

The firm says it is currently working with a number of compounds, two of which are currently available for licensing. HBI-3000 is a novel anti-arrhythmic drug, and HBI-8000 is a first-in-class oncology candidate.

HBI-3000 is a multi-ion channel blocker with potential use against both atrial and ventricular arrhythmias, Huya states. The drug has cleared Phase I trials in China, and Phase II trials there are pending. Pharmacology and toxicology studies with HBI-3000 are ongoing in the U.S., and a successful pre-IND meeting with FDA has clarified that the use of Chinese clinical data in U.S.-based trials will be acceptable, the firm adds.

HBI-8000 is a low nanomolar inhibitor of cancer-associated HDACs. A Phase II trial has already been completed in China, and two additional Phase II studies are ongoing. A Phase I trial in the U.S. is now planned for this year, and a pre-IND consultation with FDA has been successfully concluded, the firm adds.