Shanghai, China, February 19, 2020 - Shanghai Henlius Biotech, Inc. (2696.HK) announced that under a resolution of the board of directors, Mr. Wenjie Zhang, Henlius’ Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Operation Officer and Chief Strategy Officer, was appointed as the President of Henlius. Mr. Wenjie Zhang will continue reporting to co-founder and CEO of Henlius Dr. Scott Liu, and he will lead Henlius to complete commercial transformation, becoming an integrated platform covering the entire product lifecycle from R&D, commercial-scale production to commercialization and moving towards a new phase of overall commercial operation.
Mr. Wenjie Zhang has more than 25 years of commercial operation experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He joined Henlius in March 2019. He has successively served as the Director of the specialty therapeutics and oncology Unit of Bayer Schering Pharma, Vice President of Business Unit 2 of Roche, Executive Director of Amgen Japan and Asia Pacific market, and General Manager of Amgen China, etc. Mr. Wenjie Zhang has successfully grew the Roche oncology portfolio including Avastin®(bevacizumab), Tarceva® (erlotinib) and Mabthera® (rituximab) in the China market and launched multiple products in China including Nexavar, Kogenate and Betaferon. He made outstanding achievements in pipeline planning, and in marketing strategy development of multiple oncology products.
Since Mr. Wenjie Zhang joined Henlius, he has led his team to be responsible for overall business planning and product market strategy development, focusing on optimization and continuous innovation in commercial operation model, and has built a professional and efficient international commercial operation team. With the appointment, Mr. Wenjie Zhang will continue being responsible for the development and implement of Henlius' commercialization strategy. In the meantime, he will also manage domestic routine business and daily operation, overseeing company strategy development, production operation, technology optimization, quality control and regulatory affairs and so on to achieve highly efficient operation of Henlius’ business.
Mr. Wenjie Zhang said: "With the favorable environment for innovation in the biopharmaceutical industry, we will capture every possible opportunity to expand our established advantages in R&D, manufacturing, regulatory affairs and other areas. We will also steadily keep implementing our commercial strategy to provide quality and affordable biologics for all patients around the world.
Dr. Scott Liu said: "Mr. Zhang has rich industry experience and management capability. The appointment of Mr. Zhang will inject new vitality into Henlius‘ operation. Henlius has invested and developed in the area of monoclonal antibody for 10 years and always put the interest of patients first. Looking forward, Henlius will keep its commitment to bringing more affordable and high quality biologics to patients and will stride towards our vision to become the most trusted and admired biotech company around the world.”
About Henlius
Henlius (2696.HK) is a leading biopharmaceutical company in China with the vision to offer high-quality, affordable and innovative biologics for patients worldwide with a focus on oncology and autoimmune diseases. Since its inception in 2010, Henlius has built an integrated and efficient global R&D platform with key facilities in Shanghai, Taipei and California. The three R&D centers closely collaborate with each other to ensure a highly productive and cost-efficient R&D process. Starting from biosimilar, Henlius presses forward with novel mAb products and immuno-oncology combination therapies with proprietary anti-PD-1 and PD-L1 mAbs as backbone. Henlius establishes a diversified product pipeline of biosimilars, bio-innovative drugs and combination therapies, and builds an integrated platform covering the whole product lifecycle including R&D, commercial-scale production and commercialization. On September 25, 2019, Henlius was listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited with the stock code: 2696.HK.
Until now, in addition to one product launched commercially, two products under New Drug Application (NDA) review and one product under Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) review, Henlius has conducted over 20 clinical studies for 14 products and 7 combination therapies worldwide. HLX01 (汉利康®, rituximab injection), the first product of Henlius, has been granted approval by the NMPA as the first approved biosimilar in China. HLX03 (adalimumab injection) and HLX02 (trastuzumab for injection) have their NDA under priority review by the NMPA. HLX02 is also the first China-manufactured biosimilar developed in a global setting. In June 2019, the MAA for HLX02 was accepted for review by EMA. Moreover, Henlius advances immuno-oncology combination therapies with proprietary mAbs including HLX10 (anti-PD-1 mAb) as backbone in combination with chemotherapy and other mAbs including HLX04 (bevacizumab biosimilar) and HLX07 (anti-EGFR mAb). The global multi-center clinical trials are ongoing in various countries and regions worldwide.