Biocytogen Announces RenLite® Licensing Agreement with Janssen

March 8, 2023 |

3 min read

Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (“Biocytogen”) (HKEX: 02315), today announced the signing of a non-exclusive license agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (“Janssen”).

BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (“Biocytogen”) (HKEX: 02315), today announced the signing of a non-exclusive license agreement with Janssen Biotech Inc., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (“Janssen”). Under the agreement, Biocytogen grants Janssen and its affiliates a non-exclusive worldwide license to use Biocytogen’s proprietary RenLite^® platform and underlying intellectual property to discover, research, develop, manufacture and commercialize fully human antibody therapeutics with a common light chain and other biological therapeutics for an unlimited number of drug targets and indications. The agreement was facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC.

RenLite^® is a member of Biocytogen’s fully human antibody RenMice™ family. RenLite^® mice can generate fully human antibody candidates with high specificity, affinity, diversity and good druggability, with a common light chain for subsequent assembly of bispecific and multispecific antibodies with a low mismatch and high success rate. The bispecific and multispecific antibodies assembled after RenLite^® discovery have a traditional antibody structure and exhibit ideal physiochemical properties that are advantageous for downstream CMC development.

Dr. Yuelei Shen, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Biocytogen, said: “We are pleased to partner with Janssen to accelerate the discovery of new antibody-based drugs for patients.”

About RenMice™

RenMice™ are Biocytogen’s proprietary genetically modified mice that generate antibodies with fully human variable domains. The models, which include RenMab™, RenLite^® and RenNano^® mouse platforms, as well as substrains containing additional modifications, were developed using Biocytogen’s size-unlimited, precise chromosome engineering technology (SUPCE), which allows for in situ replacement of the murine immunoglobulin genes with their human counterpart. All RenMice platforms contain the entire human heavy chain VDJ loci, with the RenMab mouse harboring all human light chain VJ loci. In contrast, the RenLite mouse contains a single human VJ locus in situ to facilitate future bispecific antibody assembly, while the RenNano mouse has modified heavy chain constant regions to generate functional heavy-chain-only antibodies (HCAbs).

RenMice can generate robust immune response and produce fully human antibodies with great diversity, specificity, affinity and druggability. The development of RenMice has allowed Biocytogen to launch 6 fully human antibody discovery platforms: monoclonal antibody (RenMab), bispecific antibody and bispecific ADC (RenLite), nanobody (RenNano), TCR-mimic antibody for intracellular targets (HLA/RenMice, i.e., MHC humanized RenMice), and a RenMice HiTS (hyperimmune target specific) antibody platform designed for GPCR and other challenging targets.

As of June 30, 2022, RenMice have been licensed by 16 biopharmaceutical companies around the world, including Merck KGaA, Xencor, BeiGene, and Innovent.

About Biocytogen

Biocytogen (HKEX: 02315) is a global biotechnology company that drives the research and development of novel antibody-based drugs with innovative technologies. Using its proprietary RenMab™/RenLite^®/RenNano^® mice platforms for fully human monoclonal, bispecific/multispecific antibody and nanobody development, respectively, Biocytogen has integrated its in vivo drug efficacy screening platforms and strong clinical development expertise to streamline the entire drug development process. Biocytogen is undertaking a large-scale project to develop first-in-class and/or best-in-class antibody drugs for more than 1000 targets, known as Project Integrum. As of June 30, 2022, this project has resulted in 28 drug co-development agreements and 16 RenMice™ licensing agreements with companies around the world, including several partnerships with multinational pharmaceutical companies (MNCs). Biocytogen’s internal pipeline includes 12 core products, among which two products are in phase II multi-regional clinical trials and two products are in phase I. Headquartered in Beijing, Biocytogen has branches in Haimen Jiangsu, Shanghai, Boston, USA and Heidelberg, Germany. For more information, please visit http://en.biocytogen.com.cn.