The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and Grand Pharmaceutical Group Limited (Grand Pharmaceutical) have officially signed a research collaboration agreement, marking a significant step toward integrating world-class academic research with industrial application to advance innovative drug development and serving as a successful model of deep industry-academia-research integration.
The research collaboration agreement was signed by Mr Pierre Wang, Managing Director of HKU Versitech Limited, and Mr Chao Zhou, Chief Executive Officer of Grand Pharmaceutical.
The first collaborative project, the Innovative Drug Project, aims to develop novel therapeutic solutions with high efficacy and high safety profiles to address urgent unmet clinical needs in the field of anti-infective (antibacterial) treatments. Under this collaboration, research teams from both parties will work closely together to develop new preclinical drug candidates.
Upon successful completion of the project, Grand Pharmaceutical is expected to take an exclusive license to the resulting intellectual property (IP) and will be responsible for its subsequent development, regulatory approval, and commercialisation, thereby bridging the gap between cutting-edge academic research and real-world patient applications and accelerating the translation of innovative discoveries into tangible medical breakthroughs.
Professor Xuechen Li, Chair of Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry at HKU, who is leading the Innovative Drug Project, said, "We are very excited to embark on this in-depth collaboration with Grand Pharmaceutical. They possess outstanding vision and capabilities for industrialisation, enabling the translation of our laboratory discoveries into tangible medicines that benefit patients. This partnership represents a crucial step in our exploration of a synergistic innovation model between academia and industry. We are confident that the complementary strengths of both parties will greatly accelerate the translation of our research outcomes."
Professor Li's research focuses on the interface of synthetic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and biology, spanning from innovative synthetic method development to biological studies and drug discovery, with the ultimate aim of developing novel therapeutics. He has pioneered the development of several innovative methods for synthesising and modifying biomolecules, including peptides, proteins and glycans. These advancements open new avenues for studying the biology and medicinal chemistry of biomolecules and provide greater possibilities for developing biologics with new functional activities.
Mr Chao Zhou, Chief Executive Officer of Grand Pharmaceutical, stated, "We are delighted to establish this strategic partnership with The University of Hong Kong, a world-leading academic institution. This collaboration perfectly combines HKU's profound expertise in medicinal chemistry with our strong clinical development and commercialisation capabilities. We look forward to working closely with the HKU team to accelerate the development of innovative medicines that can address critical unmet medical needs for patients worldwide."
