On November 9, 2021 CStone Pharmaceuticals ("CStone", HKEX: 2616), a leading biopharmaceutical company focused on the research, development, and commercialization of innovative immuno-oncology therapies and precision medicines, and DotBio Pte. Ltd ("DotBio"), a biotech company specialized in next generation antibody therapies, reported that they have entered into a collaboration agreement (Press release, DotBio, NOV 9, 2021, View Source [SID1234646737]). This collaboration represents the first project to be settled at CStone Global R&D Headquarters and Industrialization Base in Suzhou. CStone will lead the design of target combination based on the intended mechanism of action and DotBio will lead the molecular design and engineering. It will become a source of innovative preclinical candidates to support CStone’s Pipeline 2.0 strategy, further accelerating drug discovery with denovo design.

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Under the partnership, the two sides will jointly develop up to three first-in-class or best-inclass next-generation antibody therapies, including multi-functional antibodies and antibodydrug conjugates (ADCs). CStone will take an equity position in DotBio and has the option to acquire global rights to the molecules at predefined terms.

DotBio’s proprietary DotBody technology platform is based on the concept of modular design. By prefabricating antibody modules with specific functions, DotBio is able to combine them on demand to build multi-functional antibodies quickly and efficiently, improving antibody quality, development success rate and efficiency. This high throughput process allows DotBio to generate multi-specific antibodies, ADCs and intracellular antibodies in a matter of months as opposed to over a year. The DotBody platform has been optimized for autonomous folding, better stability, high expression levels, high concentration, and low aggregation.

Dr. Archie Tse, Chief Scientific Officer of CStone, said: "In our organic research model, we utilize the scientific expertise and clinical insights of our experienced R&D team to select targets and design projects, while leveraging external synergies, particularly by working with platform companies with unique technological advantages, to develop high-quality innovative drugs. Technology platform collaborations of this nature, among other sources of innovation, will become an integral part of CStone’s discovery research engine. We are very excited about the potential of DotBio’s domain therapeutic antibody platform which is a perfect strategic fit to the modular, multi-specific, and multi-functional nature of the biologic products in our Pipeline 2.0. We believe that the collaboration between us will help advance the development of next-generation antibody therapies and bring the most effective medicines to cancer patients as early as possible."

Dr. Ignacio Asial, CEO and founder of DotBio, said, "DotBio aims to accelerate the development of next-generation cancer therapies through our modular design, multi-functional antibody discovery platform. This collaboration with CStone, a company with a wealth of expertise in cancer biology and clinical development, is an important step towards achieving this goal. The incubation of DotBio at CStone’s Global R&D Headquarters and Industrialization Base will offer both our teams a unique opportunity to work closely together. At the same time, this will provide DotBio with a strong foundation to expand into the China market. We are very excited about this collaboration and look forward to working with CStone to deliver more effective, DotBody-based treatments to patients."

Under the agreement, CStone will provide DotBio with a fully functional lab space and in-kind
resource sharing at CStone Global R&D Headquarters and Industrialization Base during the
collaboration period. DotBio will be eligible to earn milestone payments as the drug candidates
advance through development. If approved, DotBio is eligible for royalty payments.