Tee Labs Incubatee：Full-Life Technologies to Acquire Focus-X Therapeutics, Bolstering Peptide-Focused Radiopharmaceutical Pipeline

On November 29, Full-Life Technologies (“Full-Life”), a Tee Labs Incubatee, announced the acquisition of Focus-X Therapeutics (“Focus-X”), a New Jersey, USA-based company developing targeted radiopharmaceuticals for the treatment of cancer based on its proprietary peptide engineering technology. The acquisition, valued at $245 million, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.

Founded in 2021, Full-Life secured a $10 million seed round financing co-led by Chengwei Capital and Gening Venture, followed by a Series A financing of nearly 250 million RMB led by Sequoia China, with participation from YINGLIAN Partners, Jia-Chen Capital, C-Bridge Capital, and Kunlun Capital.

From its inception, Full-Life has had a global strategy and vision. In addition to its domestic presence, the company has established deep roots in Europe—a region with the most well-established policies for nuclear medicine and the most mature supply chain—enabling its rapid growth. In just 14 months since its establishment, the company has built a comprehensive team covering early-stage R&D, procurement, logistics, and clinical development, and has established a strategic global presence across R&D, clinical operations, and its supply chain.

Acquisition accelerates Full-Life’s transformation into clinical stage radiopharmaceutical company, leveraging its European-focused Radiotechnology and Development Platform

Brussels, Belgium, Watchung, NJ, Shanghai, China – November 29, 2022 – Full-Life Technologies, a fully integrated global radiotherapeutics company, today announced an agreement to acquire New Jersey-based Focus-X Therapeutics, a company developing targeted radiopharmaceuticals to treat cancer based on proprietary peptide engineering technology. The acquisition expands Full-Life’s pipeline, including two compounds nearing clinical trials, provides a second innovative peptide focused discovery platform, and leverages its Radio Technology manufacturing and logistics platforms to advance compounds into clinical development.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Focus-X shareholders are eligible to receive from Full-Life an upfront payment, potential development, regulatory and sales-based milestones of up to $245 million and royalties on any commercial sales. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.

“The Focus-X acquisition perfectly leverages Full-Life’s radiotechnology and development platform by adding two development ready compounds, including a lead with initial human data, a robust pipeline and world class peptide discovery capabilities,” said Lanny Sun, Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Full-Life.

Fa Liu, PhD, Focus-X’s Co-founder and CEO commented, “Full-Life’s integrated platforms will provide the manufacturing technology, logistics and clinical development expertise to accelerate development of our compounds as well as expand our discovery efforts. This world class radiopharmaceutical team has enormous potential to develop radiopharmaceutical therapeutics that impact patients worldwide.”

Founded in 2020, Focus-X has developed a proprietary engineering platform to develop peptide radioligands that precisely deliver alpha or beta emitters to breakdown cancer cell DNA. The platform enables high-quality optimization of peptide radioligand vectors for key pharmaceutical attributes such as biodistribution, binding affinity and in vivo stability. Such optimization can present significant challenges to other ligand targeting compounds such as antibodies. The company has focused on both validated targets and new mechanisms.

Focus-X has established a substantial pipeline. The company’s two lead compounds in development are a prostate specific membrane antigen (PMSA)-targeted peptide for the treatment of metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer and a neurotensin receptor type 1 (NTSR1)-targeted peptide for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. The PMSA-targeted compound is currently undergoing an investigator-initiated imaging study. Focus-X has six other programs in earlier stages of development.

About Full-Life Technologies

Full-Life Technologies Limited (“Full-Life”) is a fully integrated global radiopharmaceutical company with operations in Europe and China. We seek to own the entire value chain for radiopharmaceutical research & development, production & commercialization in order to deliver clinical impact for patients. The company plans to attack core issues affecting radiopharmaceuticals today through innovative research that targets the treatments of tomorrow. We are comprised of a team of fast-moving entrepreneurs and scientists with a demonstrated track record in the life sciences, as well as radioisotope research and clinical development. 

About Tee Labs

Tee Labs is an international community and business incubator founded through a collaboration of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, dedicated to supporting the development of pioneering medical fields, including new drug discovery, diagnostics, and personalized medicine that incorporate artificial intelligence and digital solutions.

We provide comprehensive support, including R&D facilities, corporate functions, supply chain integration, and financial backing, to deeply empower entrepreneurial teams and accelerate their R&D progress. The laboratories are equipped with basic general-purpose experimental equipment as well as shared equipment platforms, significantly shortening the setup phase for startups in terms of facilities and equipment, allowing companies to focus on their core R&D work.

The incubator is located in the central area of Zhangjiang Science City, in a park at the Zhongke Road station exit of Metro Line 13, near the Jinke Road exit of the Middle Ring Road. The park is adjacent to research institutions such as ShanghaiTech University, the Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies, and the National Center for Protein Science, placing it in the core development zone of Zhangjiang Science City. It is a core hub integrating research, living, and transportation.

Currently, Tee Labs has approximately 2,600 square meters of incubation space, with 1,500 square meters dedicated to laboratory areas, including a chemistry lab, a molecular biology lab, a cell culture lab, a bacterial culture lab, and a Biosafety Level 2 (BSL-2) lab. The variety of lab spaces supports companies with different R&D directions and allows early-stage companies to have multi-functional teams working within the same space.

Tee Labs employs a very flexible collaboration model. Incubated companies can rent lab benches and office desks according to the changes in their personnel, which is especially suitable for startups beginning from scratch.