Meizer Pharma Raises ￥10 Million in Series Pre-A Round

(VCBeat) Jan. 19, 2021 -- Biopharmaceutical company Shanghai Meizhi Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. ("Meizer Pharma") has raised tens of millions in Series Pre-A financing from Highthink Pharmaceutical. Yingshan Capital acted as the financial adviser. Proceeds from this round will be used for the IND application of Meizhi Pharmaceutical's project of hematoma, which is expected to enter clinical trials by the end of 2021.

Previously, the founding team of Meizer Pharma raised several million RMB of start-up capital by itself and obtained angel round investment from the Minhang District Innovation Fund namely "Zefu" in 2019.

Founded in 2017, Meizer Pharma is an R&D company engaged in the novel drug discovery of targeted protein degradation. As one of the first companies specialized in the R&D of proteolysis-targeting chimera (PROTAC) technology, Meizhi Pharmaceutical set up its own new drug R&D platform based on PROTAC and has developed several core pipelines, covering the treatments in blood tumors, solid tumors and autoimmune diseases, etc.

Shu Yongzhi, the founder of Meizer Pharma, said, " Meizhi Pharmaceutical's goal is to be in line with international standards and must develop first-in-class (FIC) drugs. A better approach for start-up biotech companies to develop FIC drugs is to use cutting-edge technologies such as PROTAC, on which Meizer is focused." 

PROTAC has been developed to be a useful technology for targeted protein degradation, using the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) within cells to target and remove pathogenic proteins from cells, thereby treating diseases.

Based on PROTAC, Meizer Pharma has built several differentiated pipelines for different targeted proteins. Among them, the candidate MZ-001 against blood tumor is in the fastest progress. It is taken orally and can be applied to a variety of blood cancer treatment, including B-cell lymphoma with drug resistance to first-line therapies. The company will also expand the application of MZ-001 in autoimmune diseases, such as graft versus host disease (GVHD).

MZ-001 has been shown to be effective in vitro and in vivo with good druggability and safety in preclinical studies. This round of funding will also be used to accelerate the preclinical studies, IND application, and clinical trials of this pipeline.

Highthinkmed is a contract research organization (CRO) specialized in providing Phase I-IV clinical research and related technical services for pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies and new drug development institutions. As a highly specialized, standardized and internationalized large-scale CRO company with rich project experiences, Highthinkmed provides one-stop comprehensive professional and technical services and solutions to reduce development costs and risks, accelerate the market launch of new drugs, therefore creating values for customers.

Yingshan Capital is an investment bank under the management of Softfir Capital. The company is committed to private equity financing, mergers & acquisitions and other business for growth-stage companies, focusing on biomedical, innovative technologies, new economy and other sectors. Softfir Capital invests in comprehensive urban development and operation, innovative technologies, and consumption.