Shanghai, China, May 7, 2018 – Asieris Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, announced today the appointment of Dr. Yijun Deng as Vice President of Drug Discovery. This is another addition of technical expert to Asieris’ senior leadership team following the appointments of Dr. James Pang as Chief Medical Officer and Dr. Ethan Guo as Vice President ofCMC.
“We are pleased to have Yijun join our team. Asieris Pharmaceuticals is currently at a critical expansion stage, with an anti-cancer drug in Pivotal Trial, two drugs under preclinical development, and several late-stage drugs to be in-licensed in the near future; two of these assets are supported by China’s 13th “National 5-Year important Innovations” funding programs. We continue to expand our pipeline in anti-urinogenital cancer and anti-multidrug resistance including conducting clinical trials overseas. Yijun brings to us his proven technical expertise of high relevance to our new drug R&D programs, and will help expand and strengthen our new drug discovery capability,” commented Dr. Kevin Pan, co-founder, CEO, and Chairman.
“It is my pleasure to join Asieris Pharmaceuticals. I very much look forward to collaborating with the Asieris team to expand and realize the full potential of the programs and pipeline,” commented Dr. Deng.
Prior to Asieris, Dr. Deng has worked for several US pharmaceutical companies, includingJohnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Viropharma Inc, and Tetralogic Pharmaceuticals. His 20 years of experience in new drug R&D span from the design, selection, and optimization of new molecules, to the manufacturing and quality control of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) and their dosage forms. Dr. Deng’s research field included anti-viral small molecular drugs, novel anti-multidrug resistance drugs, and anti-cancer drugs. Three of the new drugs he contributed or led have received approval from the US FDA to enter Phase I (anti-hepatitis C drug HCV-796) or Phase II (anti-cancer drugs TL32711 and SHP-141) clinical trials.
Dr. Deng received his PhD in bio-organic chemistry from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, and a MS in organic chemistry Sun Yat-sen University. He has been granted more than 10 international patents and has more than 20 publications in internationally renounced scientific journals.
About Asieris Pharmaceuticals (Asieris)
Founded in 2010, Asieris Pharmaceuticals aspires to becoming a China-based biotech company with global impacts. Asieris has business and R&D operations in Shanghai, Beijing, and in the China Medical City of Taizhou, Jiangsu Province. Asieris’ multi-disciplinary R&D team with deep technical expertise is led by several experienced “returnees”, with a focus on the discovery and development of innovative drugs to address significant unmet medical needs, such as cancer and multi-drug resistance (MDR). APL-1202, Asieris’ leading drug candidate, has been supported by China’s 12th and 13th “National 5-Year important Innovations” funding programs. Developed from an invention in-licensed from the Johns Hopkins University, APL-1202 has a novel mechanism of action, and currently is the only oral drug in the world under Pivotal Trial for the treatment of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. Asieris’ APL-1501 has been granted as one of the programs under China’s 13th “National 5-Year important Innovations: Development of drugs and critical technology platforms for the prevention and treatment of multi-drug resistance (MDR)”. In addition to its proprietary drugs, anti-cancer and anti-MDR platforms, Asieris is currently in active negotiation with multiple international pharmaceutical and biotech companies for partnerships in China and global markets.