Ventac Partners, a dedicated life science consulting firm with offices in Europe, USA and Asia, and the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences (GIBH) have created CASiGEN Pharma Ltd. (CASiGEN) to bring new treatments for diabetes and other metabolic disorders to the global market.

CASiGEN received a world-wide exclusive license from GIBH that gives it access to new drug candidates addressing unmet medical needs in this field. CASiGEN is currently seeking investors to advance development of selected orally available small molecules targeting the ERR-alpha receptor as a potential diabetes treatment.

The company will apply to join the Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks (HKSTP), a world class research park based in Hong Kong and within the Guangzhou region.

Commenting about the license agreement, Dr Duanqing Pei, director general at GIBH, said, “The licence agreement with CASiGEN Pharma constitutes an important milestone for GIBH as it takes a key research project to the global market in collaboration with an international team of pharma and biotech people from the United States and Europe. We are grateful to HKSTP for initiating a survey of the entire Pearl River Delta Region in 2008/09. It is through this initiative that we now see CASiGEN Pharma becoming a reality.”

Anthony Tan, CEO of Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC), said “We are pleased to have catalyzed the collaboration between an esteemed Chinese Academy of Science Institute and Ventac Partners, resulting in a spinoff company in Hong Kong. HKSTPC provides facilities, services and a dynamic environment that enable companies to nurture ideas, innovate and develop. We look forward to receiving an application from CASiGEN Pharma. CASiGEN Pharma could potentially be an excellent example of how universities and research institutions in mainland China could take advantage of Hong Kong's international business outlook and get high level support at HKSTPC to take the company efficiently through its early development stage.”

Commenting about the licence agreement and potential future home of CASiGEN at HKSTP, Mikael Oerum, chairman of CASiGEN Pharma and founding partner of Ventac Partners, said, “CASiGEN Pharma is committed to the development of novel drugs for the treatment of metabolic diseases, in particular diabetes type 2. CASiGEN combines international pharmaceutical business expertise with novel therapeutic discoveries originating from GIBH to enable fast and efficient drug development. The diabetes programme at CASiGEN focuses on the identification and development of orally available, small molecules acting on a recently validated drug target, ERR-alpha, in type 2 diabetes. Our goal is to improve the effect of insulin action by making the body more sensitive to insulin. We believe by locating the company in HKSTP CASiGEN will be situated optimally in the region. HKSTP is an excellent supporter of young biotech companies with a global outlook. It is furthermore anticipated that CASiGEN will form a partnership with a mainland company to serve the China market for new anti-diabetic drugs.”

GIBH is a government-sponsored scientific research institute affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. With more than 300 staff members and 200 graduate students, the institute engages in three major areas of research, stem cell biology, chemical and synthetic biology and infection/immunity. GIBH's mission is to serve citizens of China and the world through commitment and discovery by integrating both biological and chemical sciences for the improvement of human health.

Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC) is a statutory body set up by the Hong Kong government. HKSTPC provides innovative and technology driven infrastructure and support facilities which include market focused clustered laboratory services enabling Hong Kong industries and services to be more competitive; it provides a full-service incubation programme for technology and design start-ups, and fosters partnerships and collaboration between industry and universities/applied research institutes through consulting, training and research programmes.