Image Source: Visual China

BEIJING, June 16 (TMTPOST) — Chinese biotechnology company Laekna Therapeutics filed for public listing in Hong Kong on Thursday, with China International Capital Corporation as its exclusive sponsor.

Founded in 2016, Laekna is a clinical-stage global biotechnology company, dedicated to bringing ground-breaking therapies to cancer and liver fibrosis patients worldwide.

The company has two potential core products. LAE002 is an investigational highly selective adenosine triphosphate (ATP) competitive AKT inhibitor for the treatment of ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer and PD-1/PD-L1 drug-resistant solid tumors. The other core product LAE001 is an investigational potential first-in-class next-generation androgen synthesis inhibitor that simultaneously inhibits both CYP17A1 and CYP11B2 for the treatment of prostate cancer.

Laekna’s strong infrastructure has already enabled the rapid development of 14 innovative product candidates, including one pivotal clinical trial and another five clinical trials for our potential Core Products. Among these six clinical trials, three multi-regional clinical trials (MRCTs) are designed to address urgent yet unmet global medical needs in the standard of care (SOC)-resistant cancers.

The company is dedicated to making use of solid internal research and development capacity to enhance the pipeline from early drug discovery to clinical development. To date, the company’s research and development team consist of around 55 members, 14 of which have a PhD degree and 26 of which have a master’s degree.

Laekna’s research and development team also has rich experience in clinical development with a focus on cancer and liver diseases. The company’s pre-clinical discovery research works are headed by Dr. Gu Xiangju. Dr. Gu has over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. Before joining Laekna, Dr. Gu was a venture partner at GP Healthcare Capital Co., Ltd. in 2019.

In 2020 and 2021, Laekna’s total revenues were 232 million yuan and 730 million yuan. In 2020 and 2021, the company’s funding for research and development was 78.39 million yuan and 173 million yuan respectively.