On April 6, METiS, a startup focusing on the development of AI formulation and delivery systems, officially announced that it has completed two consecutive rounds of financing, totaling $150 million. The two rounds of financing were led by PICC Capital and China Life Private Equity, co-invested by sequoia China, 5Y Capital, CMB International, Lightspeed China, Monolith, and Frees Fund. China Renaissance Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor. METiS was incubated by XtalPi in the early stage, and is committed to foster the development of AI drug and delivery system platform. Through independent research and development and vigorous cooperation, METiS will work with partners in the field of small molecule and nucleic acid drugs to bolster more high-value drug pipelines to the clinical stage.
Under the leadership of Dr Hong-min Chen(Fellow of National Engineering Academy), Dr. Caida Lai, Dr. Wenshou Wang,et al, and a number of MIT top scientists, METiS have found out a new stream of artificial intelligence in drug delivery. Interweave the self-developed drug delivery "high-throughput experimental platform" with data-driven "AI algorithm", mechanism-driven quantum chemistry and molecular dynamics simulation, enabling prediction of the physicochemical and biological properties of small molecules and nucleic acid drugs in specific microenvironments. What’s more, by exploiting AI-driven dry and wet experimental iterations to achieve effective lead optimization, nucleic acid sequence optimization, and more advantageous formulations or nucleic acid delivery systems. METiS has many patent applications and a number of small molecule and nucleic acid development pipelines, of which the fastest pipeline is expected to start clinical trials in 2023.
It is worth mentioning that METiS is capable of designing mRNA sequence protected by its own IP and designing LNP for nucleic acid-based drug delivery. The expression efficiency of LNP nucleic acid delivery system is more than 10 times higher than the industry gold standard, and the targeted delivery to liver, lung, spleen, muscle and other organs/tissues can be achieved as well. This means this LNP technology will help to achieve local regeneration, systemic/targeted protein secretion, antibody, enzyme replacement, tumor targeting, enhanced immunity and other treatments, which attracted a number of pipeline cooperation from domestic and foreign large Pharmas.
Dr. Lai, CEO of METiS, said, "We are very grateful to the new and earlier shareholders who have been giving us unlimited support in business operation, technology and business cooperation, enabling us to build the AI Drug and delivery system development platform to lay out several small molecules and drug pipelines in a short period of time. At the same time, we are honored to establish friendly and cooperative relations with large pharmaceutical companies and academic community domestically and abroad. We will jointly implement more cutting-edge technologies to the development of small molecule and nucleic acid drugs to foster more promising drugs into clinical practice for the benefit of patients.
Wanting Shu, director of investment department and Managing Director of PICC Capital Equity Investment Co., LTD., said "With Hongmin Chen’s nearly 30 years’ experience in pharmaceutical formulation development, and under the leadership of Dr Lai and Dr Wang, METiS has successfully approach to formulation and nucleic acid drug delivery for a closer developability solution. METiS is in sheer contrast against other AI pharmaceutical companies, already made remarkable achievements in the business development. At the same time, METiS has initiated a number of first-in-class and best-in-class drug pipelines, and has carried out commercial cooperation with a number of domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies. We are very optimistic about the future of METiS, and hope that it can develop more innovative drugs soon to benefit human health and make good returns from science and technology.
"As the industry's leading AI drug delivery and pharmaceutical development company, METiS has built a unique AI prediction platform that can rapidly scale up the drug pipeline and carry out key clinical trials within a short period of time," said Guoshou. "At the same time, relying on its leading nano delivery technology, METiS rigorously expand the uncharted territory of mRNA and other new forms of drugs, a promising future. We are very pleased to support it to explore AI and new biotechnology, to deliver innovative therapies to patients. METiS is aiming to leverage AI to achieve the ambitious mission of building a healthy society worldwide."
"The integration of IT and biotech has brought a '10X efficiency' improvement in R&D for many application scenarios in the industry, and drug delivery systems are one of them," said Xutian Jing, managing director of 5Y Capital. "In the past two years, METiS has demonstrated a strong development capability either from team or business, and we are surprised to see that the company has developed the world's leading AI drug delivery platform, and the current delivery test results have reached the best level in the industry, with high value potential. We truly believe that METiS will continue to develop industry-leading delivery systems and continue to foster the development of new forms of drugs such as mRNA, and is expected to become the innovation leader in this vast blue ocean."
Cuiping Gu, Managing Director of Sequoia China, said, "Combining IT BT integrated end-to-end solution with years of industry experience from the top team, METiS’s has constituted a solid foundation for the company's development. We believe that through AI world-class optimal delivery system, METiS will foster the research and development of new forms of drugs and become the next generation of global drug development leader. We will continue to accompany and support the growth of METiS and help improve the health of mankind."
"New forms of drugs, especially mRNA, can be designed for multi-targets, convenient to be developed and has an over one trillion dollars market. We are very optimistic about METiS’s current AI drug delivery/formulation platform technology.," said Xi Cao, founding partner of Monolith. "We are also very excited about METiS's current AI drug delivery platform. We believe that under the new round of financing, METiS can further hasten the technological iteration and create sustainable value in the field of new modality drug R&D."
Xin Wan, co-head of Industry Internet Group of China Renaissance Capital, said, "We are very happy to be with the METiS to help it successfully complete multiple rounds of financing. Traditional innovative drug research and development cycle is tedious, with high investment cost and risk, but AI enabling technologies can significantly improve the efficiency of the industry. We highly recognize METiS's leading position in the industry and its great growth potential in the future, and we are honored to be a long-term partner on his journey."
