On November 9th, the groundbreaking ceremony of the Global R&D Center of TOT BIOPHARM was successfully completed. Among attendees of the ceremony including Mi Shen, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Suzhou Municipal Committee and Secretary of the Party Working Committee of SIP; Jing Shen, Director of the Suzhou Municipal Taiwan Affairs Office; Jiang Zhu, member of the Party Working Committee and Deputy Director of the Management Committee of SIP; Hua Liu, member of the Party Working Committee and Deputy Director of the Management Committee of SIP; Shan Fu, Chairman of the Board of Directors of TOT BIOPHARM; Jun Liu, CEO and Executive Director of TOT BIOPHARM; Chunying Huang , Vice Chairman and Executive Director of TOT BIOPHARM, and Yumin Qiu, Non-executive Director of TOT BIOPHARM and partner of Advantech Capital.

Deputy Director Hua Liu, said:

“The establishment of the Global R&D Center of TOT BIOPHARM fully reflects the forward-looking layout of the enterprise for innovation investment and its trust in the park environment. In the future, the park will take the opportunity to build a biopharmaceutical technology innovation center, make every effort to build a domestic first-class place of origin for biopharmaceuticals, a world-class landmark area for biopharmaceutical industry, thus creating a better development environment for the park’s enterprises, including TOT BIOPHARM. We expect that TOT BIOPHARM’s Global R&D Center, with its first-class talents, technologies, ideas and management will accelerate the process of anti-cancer drug development and continuously empower the park’s biopharmaceutical development.”

Mr. Shan Fu, said:

 “The location of TOT BIOPHARM’s Global R&D Center in Suzhou will help consolidate TOT BIOPHARM’s advantages in the field of bio-innovative drugs, catering to China and serving the whole world; it will also help strengthen TOT BIOPHARM’s leading position in the field of ADC drugs and promote the Group’s innovative drug development in China as well as the world. In the future, we will adhere to two basic points, one is to focus on the domestic market and serve Suzhou well; the second is to adhere to TOT BIOPHARM’s long-standing commitment to developing more products which enhance drug accessibility with large indications and major varieties as the main target.”

Dr. Jun Liu stated,

“The completion of the Global R&D Center will gather the company’s R&D advantages, focus on enhancing the strength of innovative drug process development, and improve the fine management of quality system, thus further accelerating the speed and quality of drug development and better facilitating the cooperation with innovative drug development companies. On the other hand, TOT BIOPHARM will make more effective use of the completed Factory 1 and Factory 2 to expand its manufacture capacity on a large scale, enhancing the flexibility of manufacture lines and preparing for the implementation of more innovative drug manufacture.”

TOT BIOPHARM has an internationally competitive anti-tumor drug development and manufacturing base in Suzhou Industrial Park, covering a total area of 50,000 square meters, with five phases of construction planned. Among them, the Phase I anti-cancer drug plant and Phase II biologic drug R&D industrialization base were completed which operated in 2012 and 2018, respectively. Along with the continuous development of product pipeline, the laboratories for drug R&D and testing in the plant could not meet the R&D needs of the company’s diversified anti-tumor drugs, and the construction of the global R&D center was then put on the agenda.

The global R&D center is expected to be completed in 2023, with a total floor area of 25,000 square meters, and will have the functions of early-stage R&D, process development, quality research and headquarters office. Among them, the R&D core experimental area can accommodate 280-300 researchers, allowing research and process development of multiple monoclonal drugs, ADC drugs, oncolytic virus drugs and special small molecule antitumor drugs to be carried out simultaneously, as well as seamless connection with the production area. The localization of R&D and production will also achieve collaborative and efficient drug development throughout the entire process, thereby improving R&D efficiency and cost advantages.

With the blueprint of “Healthy China 2030” gradually becoming a reality, China’s biopharmaceutical industry is flourishing. SIP has also placed biopharmaceutical industry as the “No. 1 industry”, gathering high-end innovative resources and elements to build a world-class landmark area for biopharmaceutical industry. TOT BIOPHARM has been rooted in SIP for more than 10 years and has steadily entered a harvest period. Within a year, two products were launched, one product has submitted a marketing application, progress of ADC (antibody drug conjugates) has been in the lead domestically, and CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organization) services are in full swing. The global R&D center is about to be in construction.

The establishment of the global R&D center is an important milestone for TOT BIOPHARM, as well as a new starting point for the company to deepen its layout of the biopharmaceutical industry. In the future, TOT BIOPHARM will continue to uphold the corporate vision of “improving the quality of life of global cancer patients with innovative technology”, and continue to devote itself to the R&D of innovative drugs to empower the “China Innovative Drug”.