HitGen has successfully completed a three-year collaboration with MTPC to discover novel hit compounds for multiple drug targets

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Feb 24, 2022, 21:00 ET

CHENGDU, China, Feb. 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- HitGen Inc. ("HitGen"), a Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR-listed company, today announced that the company has successfully completed a three-year drug discovery research collaboration with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation ("MTPC"), a Japanese pharmaceutical company with the mission of "Creating hope for all facing illness". During the three-year collaboration, multiple undisclosed targets (including undruggable targets) were screened against HitGen's proprietary DNA encoded chemical libraries (DELs). The majority of the targets have resulted in confirmed novel potent hits, which have high potential for downstream development. Now the two parties are exploring the opportunity for further collaboration.

"Several drug discovery target molecules were screened against HitGen's DELs. MTPC considers that seed compounds for several target molecules have potential to advance MTPC's drug discovery in the future. MTPC will create hit compounds and lead compounds through compound development. MTPC is advancing drug discovery research with the goal of creating breakthrough drugs," said Dr. Yoshiharu Hayashi, Executive Officer Head of Sohyaku. Innovative Research Division of MTPC.

"I am delighted to see the successful completion of our three-year collaboration with MTPC. It has been a tremendous pleasure for us to contribute to research effort of many pharmaceutical and biotech companies like MTPC to find novel small-molecule hits where traditional screening has not been successful. Encouraged by the success, HitGen and MTPC teams are now looking forward to tackling more challenges with other targets for unmet medical needs," said Dr. Jin Li, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of HitGen Inc.

In December 2018, HitGen and MTPC entered into a drug discovery research collaboration to identify novel small molecule hits for multiple targets of interest. MTPC paid HitGen assignment fee to have ownership of the hits for their further development and commercialization.

About Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation

Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation (MTPC), founded in 1678, is one of the oldest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Focused on ethical pharmaceuticals, MTPC is headquartered in Doshomachi, Osaka, the birthplace of Japan's pharmaceutical industry. In light of the anticipated changes in healthcare needs in the future, MTPC is advancing business activities under MISSION of "Creating hope for all facing illness", and has set the corporate vision for 2030 (VISION 30) to "Be a healthcare company that delivers optimal therapy to each individual." As part of the vision for 2030, MTPC is prioritizing work on "precision medicine" to provide drugs with high treatment satisfaction by identifying patient populations with high potential for efficacy and safety, focusing on the disease areas of central nervous system and immuno-inflammation. In addition, MTPC is working to develop "around the pill solutions" to address specific patient concerns based on therapeutic medicine, including prevention of diseases, pre-symptomatic disease care, prevention of aggravation and prognosis. MTPC is a member of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Group. For more information, go to https://www.mt-pharma.co.jp/e/

About HitGen Inc.

HitGen Inc. is a biotech company headquartered in Chengdu, China, with subsidiaries in Cambridge, UK and Houston, USA. It became a publicly listed company in Shanghai Stock Exchange in April 2020 (ticker code 688222.SH). HitGen has established a drug discovery research platform for small molecules and nucleic acid drug centered on the design, synthesis and screening of DNA encoded chemical libraries (DELs), fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) and structure-based drug design (SBDD) technologies. HitGen's DELs currently contains more than 1 trillion novel, diverse, drug-like small molecules and macrocyclic compounds. These compounds are members of DELs synthesized from many thousands of distinct chemical scaffolds, designed with tractable chemistry, and have yielded proven results for the discovery of small molecule leads against precedented and unprecedented classes of biological targets.

For more information, please call +86-28-85197385, +1-508-840-9646 or visit www.hitgen.com.

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SOURCE HitGen Inc.