Lipigon Pharmaceuticals has signed a new agreement with Chinese biotech company HitGen to develop drug candidates that treat blood fat disorders and cardiovascular diseases.

Lipigon, which is located at the Umeå Biotech Incubator, specializes in developing medicines for lipid-related disorders, i.e. diseases caused by irregularities when fats are processed in the body. HitGen is a biotech company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange that has created a platform for early-stage drug discovery research centered on DNA encoded chemical libraries.

“HitGen is an amazing partner for us so it feels wonderful to have agreed this deal. They are a world leader in a technology that makes it possible to conduct huge screenings of drug-like substances in order to find good starting substances for continued drug development,” says Stefan K Nilsson, CEO, Lipigon.

Lipigon owns the project and HitGen will share in future revenue

Together the two companies will develop drug candidates that activate an enzyme that can then be used to treat blood fat disorders and cardiovascular disease. The agreement forms a collaboration in which Lipigon owns the project and HitGen will share in future revenue.

“At Lipigon we will use our expertise in this field to design the actual screening process, which will then be carried out at HitGen. The best drug-like substances will be sent to us for further testing and then together we will optimise these substances,” says Nilsson.

Nillson believes the deal will broaden Lipigon’s portfolio and increase interest among private investors in the ongoing projects that Lipigon is currently advancing to raise new capital.

Image caption: Björn Eriksson, Ingela Bergqvist and Stefan K Nilsson, Lipigon