Since the beginning of this year, License-out transactions in China's biotechnology sector have remained consistently active, reflecting the overall enhancement of China's pharmaceutical innovation capabilities and their growing recognition in global markets. Recently, Suzhou Xingming Youjian, a biotechnology company incubated by Fujian Capital's New Drug Innovation Fund, entered into a strategic partnership with British biotechnology company AviadoBio, signing an exclusive option agreement for the overseas development and commercialization of the innovative optogenetic gene therapy UGX202.
Under the agreement, AviadoBio will obtain exclusive development and commercialization rights for markets outside Greater China, while Xingming Youjian stands to receive multiple revenue streams including upfront payments, milestone payments, and sales royalties, with the potential total transaction value exceeding $400 million. Notably, UGX202, as a "universal" optogenetic gene therapy product, breaks through the limitations of traditional therapies that are restricted to specific gene mutations, and can be broadly applied to various ophthalmic diseases including retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt disease, choroideremia, and advanced dry age-related macular degeneration, demonstrating enormous potential in treating both rare and common diseases.
Xingming Youjian originated from the incubation platform of Fujian Capital's New Drug Innovation Fund, which was established by FOSUN PHARMA, focusing on innovative gene therapies for ophthalmic diseases. Since its establishment in 2020, Fujian Capital's New Drug Innovation Fund has gradually built an innovation ecosystem covering cutting-edge areas such as stem cells, RNA therapy, gene editing, and nucleic acid drugs, investing in and incubating more than ten high-tech enterprises including Xingsairui Zhen, Xinghe Disai, and Xinglian Peptide, forming a complete closed loop from research origins to industrial transformation.
At this critical stage when China's pharmaceutical industry is transitioning from "following" to "running alongside" and even "leading," FOSUN PHARMA continues to strengthen its source innovation capabilities in cutting-edge biopharmaceutical fields through a diversified innovation model encompassing independent R&D, collaborative development, licensing-in, fund incubation, and industrial investment. This collaboration between Xingming Youjian and AviadoBio will not only advance the global clinical and commercial development of UGX202, but also provides an important template for Chinese innovative pharmaceutical companies to participate in global competition.
It can be anticipated that as next-generation therapies represented by gene therapy and cell therapy gradually enter clinical trials and markets, enterprises with source innovation capabilities and global resource integration abilities will occupy core positions in the future pharmaceutical landscape.