X-BODY Announces Multi-Million Dollar Development Alliance With Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co., Ltd., A Leading Pharmaceutical Company In China, To Develop Novel Therapeutic Antibodies For AMD

WALTHAM, Mass. and LIANYUNGANG, China, April 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- X-BODY BIOSCIENCES announced today an exclusive alliance with Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co., Ltd. ("Hengrui"), in which Hengrui will develop and commercialize a novel antibody program generated from X-BODY's antibody platform for Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) in Greater China (including mainland China, Taiwan, Macao, and Hong Kong).

Under the terms of the collaboration, Hengrui will fund and lead all preclinical and clinical development, as well as commercialization efforts, for the Greater China markets.  X-BODY retains all development and commercialization rights outside of Greater China.  Detailed financial terms were not disclosed, but terms of the alliance include an upfront payment; clinical, regulatory and commercialization milestones; and royalties on revenues from commercialized products.

"It is an important part of our corporate strategy to partner with biotechs around the world that could provide interesting molecules for us to develop and commercialize, and we are excited to take on board the first of hopefully many development programs from X-BODY," said Lianshan Zhang, Ph.D., President of Global R&D, Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co., Ltd.

"This collaboration with Hengrui, the clear leader in pharmaceutical development in China, is an important step on our path to validate the capabilities of our DNA Display drug discovery platform.  We are encouraged to see our platform yield antibodies that could have a meaningful impact on patients' lives, especially for a disease as life-altering as AMD," added Julius Knowles, CEO of X-BODY.

About Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co., Ltd.

Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co., Ltd., established in 1970, is a fully integrated pharmaceutical company in China, with annual R&D investment of over US$ 100 million. The company has been experiencing organic growth at an annual rate of 25% in the past few years. It is recognized as the top innovative home-grown drug company, with dozens of new molecular entities in clinical trials and under preclinical development.  Hengrui's products and R&D span over multiple therapeutic areas, such as oncology-hematology, anesthesiology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, ophthalmology, and inflammation. For more information, please visit http://www.hrs.com.cn/ and http://www.shhrp.com/.

About X-BODY Biosciences

X-BODY creates therapeutic antibodies against the most challenging and high-value drug targets, and is primarily focused on integral membrane proteins, such as GPCRs, ion channels, and transporters.  X-BODY is collaborating with leading biotech and pharmaceutical companies to progress its platform and its compounds.  X-BODY also generates antibodies internally, and has programs focused in oncology, ophthalmology, and metabolic diseases.  X-BODY is headquartered in Waltham, MA. For more information, please visit www.x-bodysciences.com

SOURCE X-BODY BioSciences