WuXi STA, a subsidiary of WuXi AppTec, and Coherent Biopharma, signed a strategic partnership agreement, under which, WuXi STA will become Coherent’s preferred CDMO partner to provide integrated CMC services to accelerate its present and future drug candidates (small molecule, peptide, oligonucleotide and complex chemical conjugate, etc.), from API to drug product, including process development, manufacturing, analytical and regulatory filing support.
 
Coherent Biopharma is dedicated to R&D and commercialization of tumor-targeting ligand-mediated drugs and tumor markers. Based on independently developed BEST (Bi-Engaging ligand-mediated Selective Targeting) technology platform, Coherent Biopharma has developed a diverse product pipeline with Peptide Drug Conjugate products, including CBP-1008 and CBP-1018, the two PDC drugs are both in clinical trials in the U.S. and China.
 
Based on the prior successful collaboration on CBP-1008, this strategic aims to broaden the collaboration beyond CBP-1008. PDC drugs has broad applications, but the development faces many technical challenges. WuXi STA will leverage its capability and capacity for small molecule, peptide, high potency API and complex conjugate such as PDC, to support Coherent’s PDC drug candidate development. 
 
WuXi STA peptide platform provides services from drug discovery to commercial manufacturing. This vertically integrated peptide platform covers unnatural amino acid, conjugate, peptide API to drug product, coupled with analytical support and CMC writing services.
 
Dr. Baohua Huang, Chair and GM of Coherent Biopharma, said, “We are very happy to enhance our partnership with WuXi STA to the next level, who is well known for its world-class scientific and technical strengths and industry leading end-to-end services, which offers great support to our PDC drugs. I am confident that our cooperation will accelerate the pathway of our cancer drugs to market for the benefit of global patients.”
 
Dr. Minzhang Chen, Co-CEO of WuXi AppTec and CEO of WuXi STA, said, “We are pleased to form a strategic partnership with Coherent Biopharma. Coherent is one of the pioneers in the development of PDC drugs in China and has made great progress. We are looking forward to further leveraging our proven integrated CMC platform, along with our global standard quality systems, to accelerate Coherent’s innovative drug development and ultimately benefit global patients.”