On November 29, 2022, the Chinese Consul General in San Francisco Zhang Jianmin, the Commercial Counselor Wu Peimin, and Consul Fu Lin paid a visit to Hengenix Biotech, Inc. The visit was welcomed by company representatives including Jean-Michel Gries, President of Hengenix Biotech, as well as the Henlius US Innovation Centre's Marco Muda, Vice President of Biology, and Liu Qiang, Senior Director of Lead Optimization.
Consul General Zhang and the group visited the Henlius US Innovation Centre and laboratories and spoke with company representatives to learn more about Henlius’ business, advanced technologies, and local research projects in progress. The two sides engaged in an in-depth discussion about the operation of the Henlius US Innovation Centre. Henlius US Innovation Centre, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, was founded in 2009. From target validation to drug discovery to preclinical development to translational medicine, the centre strives to form a comprehensive R&D process for novel biologics. In 2022, the centre set up a clinical operation team to support clinical trials in the United States, aiming to promote the company's product registration application in the United States. Recently, the first patient was dosed in a bridging head-to-head trial in the United States comparing HANSIZHUANG (serplulimab), an innovative anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody (mAb) independently developed by the company to the standard of care Atezolizumab (anti-PD-L1 mAb) to evaluate the efficacy of HANSIZHUANG in US patients.
Consul General Zhang made favourable remarks about the company's diverse product pipeline and international layout and commended the company for consistently upholding the core of patient needs and clinical value, as well as fulfilling its mission of "improving patients’ lives by timely providing them with quality and affordable protein therapeutics through technical innovation and operational excellence." Consul General Zhang would like to keep a close watch on the future development of Henlius US Innovation Centre and anticipates the company's further strengthening of innovative research and development to advance the development of biotechnology.