(hereinafter referred to as Leadingtac Bio), a company in Zhangjiang Science City announced the completion of a Pre-A round of financing led by Yuan Sheng Venture Capital, with additional investment from long-time shareholder ZJ LEADING VC. This funding round will be used primarily to advance the company's first Protein Degrader pipeline for autoimmune disease treatment to the clinical research stage and to develop follow-on programs and pipelines, including oncology and other autoimmune diseases. With the previous angel round, Leadingtac has raised nearly 100 million RMB in cumulative early-stage financing.

Leadingtac Bio was founded by Dr. Yan Feng in September 2019 in Zhangjiang Science Park. The company's R&D direction is dedicated to the development of target protein degradation drugs and focuses on disease areas such as autoimmunity and oncology to address unmet clinical needs.

The target protein degradation drug is a bifunctional small molecule compound, a ligand that binds the target protein at one end and E3 ubiquitin ligase at the other. A Linker connects the ligands to form a complex that draws the target protein closer to the E3 ligase and promotes the ubiquitination of the target protein, which is then degraded through the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway to remove the disease-causing target protein. Targeted protein degradation drugs are characterized by high drug-forming ability, overcoming drug resistance, small dosage, low toxicity, and drug resistance. Therefore, this research direction has received close attention from domestic and international pharmaceutical companies and capital markets.

Since its inception, the company has taken the mission of "leading innovation, Thailand's people", based on the source of innovation in new drug development, looking for new targets, using protein degradation technology to develop new small molecule drugs that are currently not drug-ready targets, to provide maximum therapeutic value for patients. As a result, we have developed a series of lead compounds with fully independent intellectual property rights based on our Nano-SPUD platform for specific protein ubiquitination and degradation drug discovery. The company's fastest progressing project is the LT001 project for autoimmune diseases. The project has obtained expected results from a series of in vitro and in vivo experiments, such as degradation activity, pharmacokinetics, and efficacy, and has already carried out IND-enabling studies, which are expected to be submitted to IND at the end of 2022 and enter clinical trials in 2023. In addition, Leadingtac is also actively developing several pipeline projects.

Dr. Yan Feng, the founder of Leadingtac Bio, said, "As a significant direction for future drug development, the development of targeted protein degradation drugs (Protein Degrader) has received much attention from academia, the pharmaceutical industry, and the capital market in the past few years. As a newcomer in this field, Leadingtac has developed its R&D technology platform and pipeline within two years of its efforts. One of the pipelines will enter the clinical filing stage soon. In this financing round, Leadingtac was honored to receive the approval and lead investment from Yuan Sheng Venture Capital, and ZJ LEADING VC also decided to continue to invest. We are very grateful to our new and old investors for their recognition and support. This financing round will help to rapidly advance the clinical filing of Leadingtac's first pipeline and also provide a strong guarantee for developing several subsequent projects, high-end talent team building, and site expansion. I believe that with the help of our investors and the efforts of the team at Leadingtac, we will be able to maximize our potential for new drug development and make greater contributions to the pharmaceutical field!"

Jay Chen, Founding Partner of Yuan Sheng Ventures, said, "We are pleased to invest in Leadingtac as the lead investor in this round. As a newcomer in the field of Protein Degrader, Leadingtac Bio has established a more mature technology platform, the first product has also started the filing of IND, and the subsequent product pipeline is various and has great potential for development. As a result, we believe Leadingtac Bio will have great international competitiveness in the future."

Yu Xiaoyong, the founding managing partner of ZJ LEADING VC, said, "We congratulate Leadingtac on the completion of this financing round. As the round angel investor of Leadingtac, we had the honor to work with Dr. Yan Feng two years ago to help Leadingtac plow through the new drug development track of protein degradation. Over the past two years, we have witnessed the continuous growth of Leadingtac's team and the company together and have gained a deep understanding of the company's continuous innovation powerhouse, which is why we have sufficient confidence in Leadingtac's future development, and that is why we continue to invest in this round. We believe that after this round of financing, Leadingtac Bio will continue to achieve good results in the advancement of clinical filing projects, the layout of pipeline projects, and the reinforcement of the team."

About Yuan Sheng Ventures

Yuan Sheng Venture Capital is an investment institution focused on the early and growth stage healthcare sector, based on BIO BAY, radiating nationwide and globally. Currently, it manages RMB and USD funds with a combined size of nearly 6 billion RMB. It has completed investments in over 100 high-quality projects, mainly in new drug creation, innovative medical devices, diagnostics and precision medicine, medical services, etc. As a result, it has achieved lucrative investment returns. It has been selected as one of the TOP 10 venture capital funds in China's healthcare sector and the most active healthcare investment institution in China many times. Through its dedicated and abundant industry resources, Yuan Sheng Ventures aspires to develop into one of China’s most successful medical and pharmaceutical venture capital funds.

About ZJ LEADING VC

ZJ LEADING VC is a local venture capital firm that invests in early to mid-stage projects in the biopharmaceutical and innovative medical device sectors in Zhangjiang Science Park. With rich industry resources, project resources, and information resources, the management team of ZJ LEADING VC can promote the rapid development of startups together with entrepreneurs by bringing together various development factors such as capital, talents, development space, corporate cooperation, and policy information needed for the growth of enterprises.