CellOrigin Biotech Announces Global Strategic Collaboration with Qilu Pharma to Develop "Off-the-Shelf" CAR-iMAC Cell Therapy

HANGZHOU, China, Sept. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CellOrigin Biotech (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. announced it has made a global strategic collaboration agreement with Qilu Pharma to develop, manufacture and commercialize proprietary "off-the-shelf" induced pluripotent stem cell- (iPSC) derived Chimeric Antigen Receptor Macrophages (CAR-iMAC) for cancer immunotherapy.

The collaboration will take advantages of technologies and expertise from both parties, as well as integrate capabilities of R&D, manufacturing and marketing to develop CAR-iMAC clinical products aiming for solid tumors.

"Innovation and offering the best products that benefit patients are the core values that CellOrigin Biotech and Qilu Pharma both appreciate," said Dr. Jin Zhang, the Co-Founder of CellOrigin Biotech and a Principal Investigator of Zhejiang University, one of the top universities in China. "This is what brings us together."

"We are very excited to collaborate with Qilu Pharma because of its prestige in the field of Chinese pharmaceutical industry, as well as its tremendous track records on drug development," said Dr. Jiansong Tong, the Chief Executive Officer at CellOrigin Biotech. "Meanwhile, we will continue to seek other potential collaborators to jointly develop our innovative anti-tumor CAR-iMac cell products."

"CellOrigin Biotech is a startup company established by a group of outstanding scientists who have tremendous experiences both in R&D research and cGMP manufacture. It focused on developing innovative technologies in cell therapy and building valuable pipeline of products. It is an ideal strategic partner for novel cell therapy, and it is our pleasure to collaborate with such a great biotech company," said Qilu Pharma.

About CellOrigin Biotech

CellOrigin Biotech (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. is dedicated to the development of genetically engineered pluripotent stem cell- (iPSC) derived immune cell therapies (such as macrophages, NK cells), with its own proprietary intellectual property. The founders are experienced leaders from Zhejiang University, Harvard University and top pharmaceutical and biotech companies around the world. They apply cutting-edge technologies in editing and differentiating iPSCs to immune cells in order to deliver novel allogeneic off-the-shelf cell therapies for the treatment of cancer patients around the world.

About Qilu Pharma

Qilu Pharma is a leading vertically integrated pharmaceutical companies in China focused on discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing innovative medicines. With a diverse pipeline of noval therapeutics, 10 manufacturing sites and more than 36,000 employees worldwide, Qilu is dedicated to transforming scientific innovation by internal R&D across 5 R&D platforms based in the US (Seattle WA, Boston MA, San Francisco CA) and China (Shanghai, Jinan), and external partnership globally into healthcare solutions to address unmet medical needs. To date, Qilu has launched 200+ products with 30+ products "First to launch" in China and 3 products "D181 launch" in US with approximately US$5.2 billion sales revenue in 2021. For more information, please visit http:en.qilu-pharma.com.

SOURCE CellOrigin