[Hong Kong, June 3, 2019] Great Bay Bio (hereinafter referred to as “GBB”), a new biotechnology company dedicated to Chemistry Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) and preclinical development of big data services platform, today announced the establishment of the company in Hong Kong. Mr. Kingsley Leung, Chairman of GBB, on behalf of the board members, is pleased to appoint Dr. Michael Chan as Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of the Company. Dr. Michael Chan officially assumed his duties on May 20. He will be responsible for the sustainable development strategy of GBB and the overall operation and management of the company. The company is headquartered in Hong Kong and will expand its business both at home and abroad. At present, the company focuses on two major sectors -- CMC platform technology services and product development, including Dongguan Taili Biotech Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Taili Bio-pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. Before its establishment, it has been favored by many financial investment institutions and strategic investment institutions.

Development Goals and Unique Development Patterns of GBB

1) Based on the integrated development of the Greater Bay Area, assisting pharmaceutical innovation

In 2018, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area formally became a national strategy, encouraging various scientific and technological innovation resources in the Greater Bay Area to complement each other and enterprises to develop together. After earnestly studying the innovative ideas for the development strategy of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, GBB began to work hard to gather the cutting-edge wisdom of industry experts and scholars in the fields of life sciences and biotechnology, as well as elites from all walks of life, hoping to help China's biotechnology research and development capabilities faster and better. Upgrade and support the development of large-scale, agglomeration and internationalization of the biomedical industry in the region.

Based on the principle of mutual benefit and win-win results, GBB closely follows the existing advantageous resources and development goals to provide high-quality CMC one-stop services for domestic and foreign customers. The company has a complete set of leading biomedical development equipment and facilities, and has experience in successfully developing escherichia coli, yeast, CHO cells and other projects. It can complete all tasks from engineering screening, clinical sample production to product testing, and can be used in drug discovery, gene sequencing, plasmid construction, cell line (strain) construction, cell culture (fermentation), purification process development, preparation process development, quality research and other comprehensive CMC services. The open service model explored by GBB can be called the "service and equity reciprocal model". It can be used to provide financial support + technology to invest in shares, or participate in project services to share equity or intellectual property rights and other new models. Carry out cooperation, provide multiple possibilities, and adhere to the balanced development of expertise and diversity.

2) Build a talent team and explore new directions for CMC/CDMO

The importance of CMC research in the new drug discovery and pre-clinical research phases is self-evident. Driven by the overall situation of the pharmaceutical industry and national policies, the domestic CDMO market is also rapidly emerging. From 2016 to 2020, China's biological drug CDMO market will grow from RMB 2 billion to RMB 10 billion, with a compound growth rate of 35%. The CMC/CDMO customized service market in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has considerable potential, and international talents are gathered here. These advantages are the best business starting point for us.

GBB’s CMC/CDMO technology and pre-clinical R&D big data service platform has a technical team of more than 40 people led by multiple doctors/senior engineers, and will provide a complete composite customized service.

GBB’s innovative drug CMC technology and preclinical R&D big data service platform in the field of biopharmaceutical innovation technology segmentation, the most worth mentioning is the establishment of the Fc platform. The goal of this platform is to use the Fc fragment of IgG to connect with unstable or short half-life polypeptides, cytokines, hormones or enzymes to form fusion proteins, prolong its half-life in the body and reduce the frequency of administration. The company uses Fc fragments of IgG2 subtype (wild type) or IgG4 subtype (S228P mutation) to be fused and expressed with different polypeptides. At present, a long-acting small molecule polypeptide project rhEPO-Fc (recombinant human erythropoietin) has been incubated is in phase I clinical. The company is currently looking for potential technology partners to jointly develop first-in-class and best-in-class products. The biggest feature of this platform is the use of CMC technology to quickly carry out pre-clinical research work, such as molecular structure stability studies, in vitro biological activity studies, animal drug efficacy sample preparation, process feasibility studies, etc., which can quickly determine the druggability of the project.

3) Deepen the service system and build a one-stop new drug service

GBB’s CEO, Dr. Michael Chan said that, The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Science and Technology Innovation Park has made a long-term layout for the R&D and innovation capabilities of the new economic belt based on an international perspective. It is clearly realized that innovation in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao is no longer limited to the provision of basic facilities and venues for new drug research and development. The greater value lies in allowing more industry experts, institutions, and cross-border integrators to jointly promote the development of pharmaceutical companies. It is about to enter a new stage of development, and the direction of integration will continue to deepen. The mission of GBB is to accelerate the R&D and production of biopharmaceuticals. This is in line with what we are doing and will do. The significance is that the rapid development of products can not only significantly reduce R&D costs, but also achieve better cost performance. Innovative drugs ultimately benefit patients. In the future, GBB’s business model can provide accurate and comprehensive customized one-stop new drug services, which will occupy an important position in the biopharmaceutical industry chain. At the same time, it will further expand the space and capabilities of new biopharmaceutical services and strive to become a best partner in pharmaceutical industry.

Mr. Kingsley Leung (right) and Dr. Michael Chan (left)

Dr. Michael Chan, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder

Dr. Michael Chan graduated from the University of Georgia with a Ph.D in biochemistry. He has more than 30 years of experience in biomedical research and development, team building and operation management. He has served as senior management, chief operating officer and president of several pharmaceutical companies in the United States and Shanghai Hengrui Pharmaceutical. He has outstanding achievements include five IND applications for biosimilars and innovative macromolecules within three years. Dr. Michael Chan has published over 18 research papers or patent articles in international journals.

Mr. Kingsley Leung, Chairman and Co-founder

Mr. Kingsley Leung holds a Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry from Imperial College London and a Master's degree in Pharmacology from The University of Oxford. He is currently a chartered Financial Analyst and a member of the Hong Kong Institute of Financial Analysts and an associate member of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors, from which he holds a professional diploma in Corporate Governance and Directors. In 2018, Mr. Kingsley Leung successfully graduated from the Insead EMBA business program at Tsinghua University. Prior to co-founding GBB, Mr. Kingsley Leung served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hong Kong Mainboard-listed pharmaceutical group Uni-Bio Science (HK0690). He has extensive experience in sourcing, evaluating and developing new growth opportunities, supporting the execution of a number of issues and public company and alliance management, including the introduction of next-generation oncology, inflammation and respiratory medicines from multinational companies. Mr. Kingsley Liang also has extensive experience in the financial industry, having worked at several major investment banks and a family fund.

About GBB

Headquartered in Hong Kong, Great Bay Bio (GBB) is a high-tech enterprise dedicated to applying artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies to biopharmaceutical development and other blue ocean bio-products, ultimately solving numerous pain points of biopharmaceutical industry, including high failure rates, long development timeline and high costs. Since the company’s establishment, it has obtained massive data from conventional biologics development in its 3000 m² CMC facilities which bolster advance equipment from world-renowned manufacturers. GBB has also successfully brought a number of biologic products to NDA stage, some of which are classified as national class I innovative drugs. Currently, the company has created the intelligent centralized database, where deep learning is being performed to create next generation of AI-enabled bioprocessing ecosystem. To learn more, please visit http://www.greatbay-bio.com.