WuXi AppTec: genomics player

The clouds aren't the limit for WuXi AppTec.

On May 24 in Shanghai, WuXi AppTec, a pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and medical device open-access technology platform, joined subsidiary WuXi Next CODE and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to launch what the companies called "The China Precision Medicine Cloud: the most powerful, proven and quality-certified national-scale cloud infrastructure for using the genome to improve medicine and health."

"This platform brings together three unique elements: Huawei's industry-leading capabilities and national network for cloud computing; the globally recognized medical innovation expertise of WuXi AppTec; and the unrivaled competence of its subsidiary WuXi NextCODE in organizing, mining and sharing genomics big data," WuXi AppTec said in a release.

Genomics is the study of genomes. A genome is the total genetic information present in a cell and unique to any specific organism.

Shanghai-based WuXi AppTec said the project "will link scientific excellence and data from across China through a secure nationwide network and governmental, medical, academic and industry collaborations".

WuXi AppTec and Huawei will follow the guidance of the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) and work with other life-science cloud providers to develop the data standards.

"It is an honor to have the opportunity to do our part in enabling doctors, scientists, companies and policymakers to develop and implement the most advanced precision medicine across China," said Dr Ge Li, chairman and CEO of WuXi AppTec. "The China Precision Medicine Cloud aims to harness unique strengths to accelerate innovation. This collaboration is a direct extension of the WuXi commitment to services with high clinical impact, leveraging big data to create the one kind of value that matters: benefit for people and patients."

"We are focused on unlocking the full potential of precision medicine in China," said Hannes Smarason, COO of WuXi NextCODE. "This is a big data challenge, and what we are creating here is the fusion of the largest scale genomics platform and the leading China cloud network."

WuXi PharmaTech, the parent company of WuXi AppTec, is headquarted in Cayman Islands. In 2008, WuXi PharmaTech merged with AppTec Laboratory Services Inc, a US company founded in 2001, with expertise in medical-device and biologics testing.

Ge, the founder, earned his doctorate in organic chemistry from Columbia University and was a founding scientist at Pharmacopeia Inc in Princeton, New Jersey. He then returned to China to found WuXi PharmaTech in Shanghai in December 2000.

WuXi AppTec encompasses the operating divisions of WuXi Pharma and has US offices in Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Diego, St. Paul, Minnesota, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Plainsboro, New Jersey, and Lansdale, Pennsylvania.

The company has grown to more than 10,000 employees, 23 R&D sites and offices worldwide and 5.5 million square feet of R&D and office space, serving 2,000 customers. WuXi Pharma formerly traded on the New York Stock Exchange but was taken private in December 2015.

On Nov 3, 2015, in WuXi PharmaTech's last quarter as a public company, it announced that net revenue increased 23.1 percent year over year to $213.6 million.

Its GAAP diluted earnings per American depositary share fell 53.7 percent to 21 cents a share.

The company reported mark-to-market losses on foreign-exchange forward contracts of $7.3 million and realized losses on settled foreign-exchange forward contracts of $1.6 million, which it attributed to RMB depreciation against the dollar in the quarter.

The biopharmaceutical industry in China in particular is seeing government support and investment. The government's "Made in China 2025" plan listed biomedicine, including gene therapies, monoclonal antibodies and vaccines, an industry priority in the future.

"Demand for new and more affordable therapies has never been greater," Ge said.

"Better medicines faster requires open-access approaches to lower the entry barrier for innovation and to harness collective capabilities and experience to improve the odds of success."

The Philadelphia Business Journal reported in June 2015 that WuXi AppTec formed a manufacturing partnership with the University of Pennsylvania's gene therapy program, which was working on a 145,000-square-foot cell- and gene-therapy manufacturing plant at the Philadelphia Navy Yard Corporate Center.

The linkup was facilitated by the Penn Center for Innovation, and Penn scientists will work with WuXi AppTec staff to develop a method for making viral vectors that are used to deliver gene therapies.

Gene therapy treats patients by replacing defective or missing genes with healthy ones. Viral vectors are genetically altered viruses; harmful genes are removed, and the vectors are used to deliver healthy genetic material into a cell.