BridgeBio Collaborates with Chinese New Drug Discovery Company on Anticancer Drug Development

Bridge Biotherapeutics announced on the 22nd that it has signed a joint research agreement with HitGen, a Chinese new drug discovery platform company, to begin research and development of the first-in-class targeted anticancer drug for a new target within the same category.

Bridge Biotherapeutics Company Logo
[Photo by Bridge Biotherapeutics]

HitGen provides solutions for small molecule compounds such as targeted anticancer drugs and various modalities (therapeutic approaches) based on its proprietary DNA-encoded library (DEL)-based candidate screening platform. In particular, through a library of more than 1.2 trillion small molecule compounds, it rapidly and efficiently screens to help companies derive optimal new drug candidates.

Bridge Biotherapeutics plans to strengthen its anticancer portfolio, which currently focuses on epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) class lung cancer treatments, by developing new anticancer drug candidates targeting undisclosed targets. To discover new targeted anticancer drugs expected to have high anticancer efficacy across various cancer types, the company has built proprietary analytical methods through preliminary research over the past year. With the start of joint research with HitGen, it is expected that the identification of active substances, optimization, and securing of lead compounds will proceed rapidly within the next year.

Jung-kyu Lee, CEO of Bridge Biotherapeutics, said, “We will accelerate the discovery of new target-specific anticancer drugs by collaborating with HitGen, which possesses proprietary screening technology,” and added, “We will challenge ourselves to develop drugs that can be expected to have anticancer treatment effects even in gene mutation cancers that have been difficult to develop so far.” Jin Li, CEO and Chairman of HitGen, also stated, “We are pleased to collaborate on the discovery of innovative anticancer candidates based on HitGen’s candidate screening platform,” and said, “We will leverage the expertise of both companies to accelerate the discovery of new anticancer drugs.”