9 Sept - Asia Bio Day 1 (Agenda is subject to change) - SGT / Singapore
APAC is no longer an emerging player; it’s a rising force in the global biotech arena. But how does the region move from potential to leadership? This keynote brings together top investors, CEOs, and dealmakers to explore how biotech companies in Asia can scale, partner, and lead on the world stage. From cross-border deals to breakthrough science, this discussion outlines the strategic moves shaping APAC’s global trajectory.
- What’s driving the most exciting biotech deals across APAC today, and what’s next?
- How are companies positioning themselves to attract global partners, capital, and talent?
- Understanding the key enablers for taking science from local discovery to global impact?
- In what way can the region’s unique strengths be leveraged to compete and lead in innovation and commercialization?
Session Themes: Strategy / Dealmaking / Investment / Collaboration
APAC’s biotech landscape isn’t driven by a single dominant hub, but by a mosaic of strengths across the region. From cutting-edge science, and robust clinical infrastructure to leading manufacturing capabilities and financial depth, each APAC market offers unique advantages. This session explores how deeper cross-border collaboration, across Asia and between continents, can unlock innovation, streamline development, and enhance Asia’s role in the global biotech ecosystem.
- How can regional integration accelerate innovation and make Asia more globally competitive?
- What are the most effective ways to align R&D, clinical development, and commercialization across Asia and between continents?
- How can companies and investors strategically tap into country-specific advantages to scale faster and smarter?
- What are some of the strategies that biotech companies can deploy to navigate and even anticipate regulatory and political headwinds in an increasingly fragmented global landscape?
Session Themes: Collaboration / Innovation / Market Access
APAC's biotech ecosystem is rapidly emerging as a powerhouse for novel therapeutic platforms, including mRNA, gene editing, and cell-based therapies. However, advancing these complex modalities requires overcoming unique investment, infrastructure, and regulatory challenges. This session will focus on how investors and innovators are collaborating to unlock early-stage value and accelerate the journey from platform innovation to patient impact.
- Where is APAC seeing the strongest investor interest in advanced therapeutic platforms?
- How are innovators addressing infrastructure and regulatory hurdles specific to modalities like mRNA and gene therapy?
- In a landscape often lacking mature comparator data, how can early-stage platforms demonstrate differentiation and long-term value, while addressing scalability and affordability for broader regional impact?
Session Themes: Investment / Infrastructure / Early-Stage Innovation / Advanced Therapeutic
The fusion of artificial intelligence with biotech is opening new frontiers in how we discover, develop, and deliver medicine. From accelerating target identification to enabling truly personalized therapies, AI is transforming both the pace and precision of innovation. This session explores how AI is pushing the boundaries of drug discovery, the path to scalable personalized medicine, and the collaborations driving this revolution forward.
- How is AI evolving from a predictive tool to an active partner in drug discovery and development?
- What data and infrastructure barriers are hindering progress, and how can they be overcome?
- How can AI drive meaningful advances in precision medicine, and what is needed to integrate these innovations into mainstream clinical practice?
- Where are biotechs and pharma successfully integrating AI into R&D, where are the friction points, and how are they addressing the ethical implications of AI-driven science?
Session Themes: AI / Drug Discovery / Precision Medicine / Innovation / Collaboration
In biotech, a great idea is just the beginning. What truly captures investor attention? In this candid fireside chat, leading biotech investors and dealmakers reveal what separates a compelling pitch from a forgettable one and why leadership, clarity, and strategic storytelling rival the science in importance. Expect honest insights, hard truths, and practical advice on what makes investors commit or walk away.
- What instantly signals to an investor that a biotech CEO is worth backing?
- How do investors evaluate the team’s ability to deliver beyond the science?
- What’s the biggest pitfall biotech founders make when pitching for funding?
- How can CEOs differentiate their company to stand out in a crowded, cautious market?
Session Themes: Investment / Fundraising / Strategy / Startups / Dealmaking
- Niki Gastinel - EPM, Commerce Engineering, Apple
- Minji Kim - Entrepreneur in Residence, Formation Bio
- Tam C. Nguyen - Deputy Director of Research / IC Member, St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne / Horizon 3 Healthcare
Closing day one with an electrifying live pitch competition featuring some of the most innovative biotech startups today. A select group of rising companies will take the stage to present their breakthrough ideas to the Asia Bio Partnering Forum audience and a panel of esteemed judges.
The winner will receive a complimentary ticket to a future EBD Group event, along with exciting prizes to be announced! Don’t miss this opportunity to witness the next wave of biotech innovation in action.
Pitching In Order:
Drug Delivery: ArrayPatch ltd
Technologies and Tools: ChemT Biotechnology
Oncology: Otter Bio Pte Ltd
Autoimmune/Inflammation: Pamplona Therapeutics
Cell and Gene Therapies: Transit Therapeutics
Cell and Gene Therapies: Epithelica GmbH
- Niki Gastinel - EPM, Commerce Engineering, Apple
- Tam C. Nguyen - Deputy Director of Research / IC Member, St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne / Horizon 3 Healthcare
- Minji Kim - Entrepreneur in Residence, Formation Bio
- Waleed Faisal - CEO/Founder, ArrayPatch ltd
- Ling Wu - President & Cofounder, ChemT Biotechnology
- Jinsong Liu - Founder, Chairman and CEO, Pamplona Therapeutics
- Peter Nell - CEO, Co-founder, Transit Therapeutics
- Friedrich Hedtrich - Co-Founder / CEO, Epithelica GmbH
- Jackwee Lim - Co-Founder, Otter Bio Pte Ltd
Leveraging its cutting-edge platforms, including advanced small molecule technologies and state-of-the-art protein engineering, GenSci has successfully established a robust pipeline targeting a diverse range of therapeutic areas including oncology, metabolic(rare disesase), endocrinology, immunology . The development programs covers a variety of modalities: mAb , BsADCS ), bsAb ( ApRIL/BALL), small molecules and siRNA.
- Yuanfeng Xia - Executive Director, GenSci Pharma
SG Medical develops oncology therapeutics using patient-derived cancer organoids. Our in-house platform integrates a biobank of over 600 organoid models from five major cancer types—including lung and colorectal—with multi-omics datasets and real-world clinical information. These organoids replicate key histological and molecular features of patient tumors, enabling high-fidelity modeling of therapeutic responses.
Leveraging this platform, we are developing first-in-class antibody-based therapies—including ADCs and BiTEs—targeting tumor-associated antigens that are significantly overexpressed in tumor tissues compared to normal. This differential expression supports modality selection and facilitates rational design of targeted therapies. Our discovery and validation efforts focus on clinically underserved subgroups, such as non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients lacking targetable mutations or with low PD-L1 expression.
SG Medical’s development engine is built on three core capabilities:
– AI-driven Target Discovery: Novel antigen identification via SGM Finder®, integrating multi-omics data with real-world unmet medical needs.
– Organoid-based Preclinical Validation: Functional validation using SGM Verifier® to demonstrate tumor-specific drug responses in clinically relevant models.
– Translationally Predictive PoC Generation: Organoid efficacy results showing strong concordance with actual patient outcomes to inform clinical decision-making.
Guided by our “3R” strategy—Real-world unmet needs, Real-world samples, Real-world data—we aim to accelerate and de-risk the development of innovative cancer therapies. We seek partnerships to co-develop or license antibody therapies for patients with limited treatment options. We have also participated in international consortia such as PERSIST-SEQ with AstraZeneca, validating our platform’s translational utility. Our organoid platform is also expandable to immuno-oncology and combination therapy evaluation.
- Je-In Youn - Medical Director, SG Medical, Inc.
Founded in 2020, ReCerise is a biotech company focused on developing a first-in-class monoclonal antibody targeting a novel, tumor-specific marker. Our name, "ReCerise," is derived from the word "revert," symbolizing a return to the vibrant red color of a healthy liver—reflecting our commitment to restoring liver health and enhancing overall wellness in society.
We are seeking strategic partners for research collaboration and licensing-out, especially in the fields of bispecific antibody and/or antibody-drug conjugate development. By integrating our novel target and antibody platform with the development and commercialization capabilities of pharma partners, we aim to pioneer a new model in immuno-oncology.
- Jennie (Unbyeol) Goh - Business Development, ReCerise Therapeutics
Imugene is advancing three clinical-stage immunotherapy platforms designed to overcome limitations in current cancer treatments. Azer-cel is an allogeneic CD19 CAR T therapy. OnCARlytics delivers CD19 to solid tumors, enabling CAR-T targeting. CF33-VAXINIA is an oncolytic virus for direct tumor killing and immune activation. These technologies aim to improve treatment access, durability, and scalability, offering potential for first-in-class therapies across blood and solid tumor indications.
- Bradley Glover - COO, Imugene Ltd
Clinical Stage Company focused on Radiopharmaceutical Therapeutic and Imaging assets
- Riccardo Canevari - CEO, Radiopharm Theranostics
Anti-drug antibodies (ADAs) are harmful antibodies that reduce the effectiveness of modern biotherapeutics.
Ablevia, founded in 2018 at the Vienna Biocenter (Austria) by a vaccine scientist and a pharma business expert, is addressing this critical challenge by pioneering a groundbreaking solution, designed to specifically remove ADAs from the circulatory system of impacted patients.
The company's solution is injectable biotherapeutics, called Selective Ab Depletion Compounds (SADC), functioning as molecular decoys for the quick and selective elimination of ADAs from the bloodstream. The removal of ADAs creates an Ab-free environment that restores and enhances the efficacy of a drug with ADA issues.
SADCs have an adaptable format enabling targeted depletion of harmful ADAs across a broad spectrum of therapeutic indications and treatment modalities currently facing ADA issues, including gene therapy, substitution therapies for rare diseases, cancer treatments, or nanocarrier-based RNA/DNA therapies.
The SADC approach represents a breakthrough opportunity in the biotherapeutics market, offering the first practical solution to the widespread ADA challenge that limits the effectiveness of many modern therapies. By overcoming this barrier, Ablevia's SADC not only enhances the precision and efficacy of critical treatments but also addresses significant unmet medical needs, thus unlocking substantial market potential in undeserved patient populations.
- Oskar Smrzka - CEO/CSO, Ablevia biotech GmbH
Headquartered in Singapore, CBC Group is Asia's largest healthcare-dedicated asset management firm, focused on platform-building, buyout, private credit, venture, and real estate, across the healthcare space, including pharmaceutical, biotech, medical technology, and healthcare services. We are committed to creating lasting value by integrating global innovations and talents. Partnering with the world's top entrepreneurs and scientists, our unique "investor-operator" approach has empowered leading healthcare companies to widen access to affordable medical care, catalyse innovations, and improve efficiency in fulfilling unmet medical needs worldwide.
MEDIPOST (KOSDAQ 078160) is headquartered in South Korea, with its wholly-owned subsidiaries in the U.S. (MEDIPOST Inc.) and Japan (MEDIPOST K.K.), as well as a CGT CDMO (OmniaBio Inc.) joint-venture subsidiary based in Ontario, Canada.
MEDIPOST succeeded in commercializing CARTISTEM® (for the treatment for knee degenerative osteoarthritis), the world's first allogeneic stem cell therapy product, through research and clinical development of allogeneic and allogeneic cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUCB-MSCs). Biologics License Application (BLA) was obtained from the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2012, and as of 2025, over 33,000 patients have received CARTISTEM treatment in Korea. CARTISTEM is currently in the final stages of phase 3 clinical trials in Japan, and is scheduled to begin phase 3 clinical trials in the United States at the end of 2025.
Additional pipelines such as SMUP-IA (an injectable treatment for early-stage knee osteoarthritis), PNEUMOSTEM (a treatment for Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia), and NEUROSTEM (a treatment for Alzheimer's disease) have completed Phase 2 clinical trials.
In order to secure a manufacturing base for North American market in the future, MEDIPOST has become a shareholder of OmniaBio, a CGT specialty CDMO company located in Canada, in 2022.
- Antonio Lee - Global President, MEDIPOST
Torskal is a medtech company, pioneer in green nanotechnology against cancer, an innovation to produce gold nanoparticles. The company has developed a way to substitute the state-of-the-art toxic chemical compounds used to produce gold nanoparticles with an alternative ecological method that uniquely leverages Indian Ocean endemic plants to produce non-toxic gold nanoparticles, which can be applied to various therapeutic fields. Torskal's initial application is in the field of dermato-oncology and is harnessing the physical properties of metallic nanoparticles to better diagnose, monitor and cure cancers. Beginning with skin cancer, the technology will improve treatment for patients with skin tumours. The current first line of treatment for skin tumour removal is surgical resection, often leading to a 34% recurrence tumour rate and requiring repeated surgical revision as well as producing severe and extensive facial scarring. Torskal's solution destroys the tumour and replaces the need for surgical resection whilst not affecting local skin tissue.
A new area of development within Torskal involves the use of artificial intelligence to deeply study the pharmacological parameters in humans prior to clinical trials. This emerging approach aims to improve the prediction of toxicity risks and optimize formulation strategies, with the goal of reducing preclinical timelines and accelerating the launch of new nanotherapies.
- Anne-Laure Morel - CEO, Torskal
At NFL Biosciences, we’re at the cutting edge of smoking cessation therapies, and we believe our flagship product, NFL-101, has the potential to redefine the market. NFL-101, a groundbreaking Phase 3 drug candidate, has recently completed a Phase 2b clinical trial (n=318) with a 12-month follow-up. This unique therapy involves just two subcutaneous injections, one week apart. The mechanism of action is totally different from how othe rproducts in the market or in development work.
- Ignacio Faus - Managing Director and Member of the Board, NFL Biosciences
Navigo Proteins’ Affilin® platform benefits from the inherent engineerability, stability, safety, and ease of manufacturability. Our portfolio comprises a versatile toolbox to custom-build selective biotherapeutic drug candidates, tailored in a flexible, modular fashion, to combine optimized selectivity, effector functions, and adjustable serum half-life.
Currently, our Affilin® molecules are being developed as radiotherapeutics but are also used for ADC and CAR-T Cells.
- Michael Hamm - Head of Business Development, Navigo Proteins GmbH
We discover and evolve antibodies against challenging multi-pass membrane targets and open a new universe of transformational therapies.
With our unique and powerful yeast-based synthetic biology and directed evolution (OrthoRep) platforms, we discover and evolve antibodies against highly challenging multi-pass membrane targets (such as GPCRs, ion channels, solute transporters) with high precision, scale, throughput and efficiency, to make rare antibody discoveries routine.
Our platforms unlock targets spanning a wide range of diseases and therapeutic applications and, while our initial internal company focus is developing candidates for novel, challenging and compelling cancer and hypertension targets, our platforms enable targeting high value targets across a range of diseases including cancer, cardiovascular, heart failure, pain, endocrine, autoimmune, etc., diseases.
Our two internal lead discovery stage T cell engager (TCE) programs targeting highly compelling and previously inaccessible multi-pass membrane tumor targets (a GPCR and a six-pass membrane spanning solute transporter, respectively) are on track to deliver development candidates by H1 2026, and we believe they have the potential to become highly impactful new treatment options for nasopharyngeal (with expansion potential to other EBV-driven cancers) and metastatic prostate cancer products. Behind that, our third program is a GPCR antagonist being developed for severe pre-eclampsia/hypertension in pregnancy, a severe condition affecting a large number of patients every year.
Finally, our platforms have powerful synergies with de novo antibody design approaches, as well as wide-ranging potential for applications within biosolutions, so we firmly believe we have the potential to build a very special company spanning disease areas, products and industries.
- Thomas Galbo - CEO, K2
Defand Therapeutics revolutionizes the discovery and development of target protein degradation assets, deploying DEFUSE, its target-centric, patented high throughput screen platform that shifts the discovery paradigm of molecular glue degraders, making rational design of small molecule degraders of high value disease targets a reality.
- Larry Cai - CBO, Defand Therapeutics
Circio is building a novel circular RNA-based expression system for enhanced gene and cell therapies. The powerful circVec platform enables efficient biogenesis of multifunctional circRNA, and is being developed for next generation AAV gene therapy and in vivo CAR-T. circVec has demonstrated up to 15-fold enhanced and 70-fold more durable protein expression vs. conventional mRNA vector systems, and has the potential to become a novel gold-standard for viral and non-viral vector therapeutics.
- Erik Digman Wiklund - CEO, Circio AB
Regenosine, a privately held company, is dedicated to developing and marketing groundbreaking musculoskeletal regenerative therapies. Our proprietary platform technology harnesses the healing potential of the purinergic system, aiming to provide a disease-modifying therapy that significantly improves clinical outcomes and enhances patient quality of life.
Regenosine boasts several key advantages. First, our team comprises subject matter experts with over 100 years of combined experience in osteoarthritis (OA) and adenosine at top institutions. Additionally, they have over 15 years of experience in scientific entrepreneurship and orthopedic product commercialization. Second, our core technology is a regenerative therapy that not only induces cartilage regeneration but also reduces joint pain and inflammation, potentially delaying the need for joint replacement. Third, the product itself leverages adenosine, a generic substance with a known toxicity profile to the US FDA. This allows us to leverage the 505(b)(2) pathway for FDA approval. Fourth, our intellectual property (IP) for the formulation and indication, including an issued patent for the use of adenosine (or analogs) in intra-articular injections for cartilage regeneration and osteoarthritis, creates significant barriers for competitors. Fifth, we have established existing payment methodologies and six CPT codes for reimbursement with government and commercial insurers. Sixth, our strong value proposition to a diverse set of stakeholders reduces adoption barriers. Patients undergo a safe intra-articular injection, followed by DMOAD treatment to stimulate cartilage regeneration. Physicians benefit from the ability to offer an outpatient procedure with no follow-up operations or revisions. Finally, payers find advantages in cost savings due to reduced costs incurred for arthroplasty and treatment expenses for managing OA.
- Sid Angle - CEO, Regenosine
The Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg is a renowned interdisciplinary research center where scientists from physics, chemistry, and biology collaborate to investigate the fundamental mechanisms of life at the molecular and cellular levels. By combining advanced methods from the physical sciences with biological questions, the institute aims to deepen our understanding of complex biological systems and contribute to medical innovation. Within this framework, the group Construction of Cells, led by Dr. Ilia Platzman, focuses on bridging droplet-based microfluidic technology with core questions in biology and biomedicine. Their research centers on two main areas: the bottom-up construction of synthetic cells to gain insight into how living cells function and originate, and the recreation of immune system microenvironments to support the development of adoptive cell therapies. Ultimately, the group aims to design non-living cells or materials that mimic the functional properties of natural immune or T cells in order to target and combat hematological cancers.
- Jochen Hernandez Bucher - Post Doc, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research