The San Francisco-based biotech company Acepodia, co-founded by US-based biomedical giant Patrick Yang and cell therapy expert Sonny Hsiao, has recently been rumoured to be abandoning its Nasdaq listing in the US in favour of listing on Taiwan's capital market.
The shareholders behind the company are all very influential, including the founder of the Hon Hai Group, Terry Gao, the chairman of Sonix Technology, Samuel Chen, and Yahoo founder, Jerry Yang. It is expected that once the company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, it will drive capital into the regenerative medicine and cell therapy sectors, creating a new wave of biotech investment in Taiwan stocks.
Founded in 2017, Acepodia is a company that develops next-generation cancer cellular immunotherapies. The core technology is the "Antibody-Cell Conjugation Technology (ACC)" invented by the CEO Sonny Hsiao. ACE1831 has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is currently undergoing Phase I human clinical trials. Another product, ACE1702, was licensed to JW Therapeutics, a Hong Kong company, in July 2020, for priority clinical research and commercialisation in China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Hsiao is only 40 years old, but the company he founded with Yang has so far attracted many well-known "rich dads". Other corporate shareholders include Samuel Chen, Terry Gao, Jerry Yang, Rongjin Lin and a number of electronics and communications companies.
As for the plan to list in Taiwan, Acepodia confirmed that the Board of Directors has authorised Sonny Hsiao to carry out an assessment, but stressed that the decision has not yet been finalised. It is understood that a board meeting will be held this month or next month at the earliest to discuss the matter. As there are several international investment corporations on the board, once the company is listed in Taiwan, the board of directors will be adjusted and the possibility of adding to the existing members or bringing in new heavyweights will be highly anticipated.
Since its inception, the company has completed three rounds of fundraising, raising a cumulative US$166 million as of November last year and valuing the company at US$300 million. Both Samuel Chen and Jerry Yang became shareholders in the Series C round in November last year, while Gao participated in the Series B round in the first half of last year.
After the completion of the Series C fundraising, the company will use it to advance the clinical trials of two new off-the-shelf cellular drugs, including ACE1702 targeting HER2 in a variety of solid cancers and ACE1831 targeting CD20 in haematological tumours. Acepodia hopes to introduce a new cellular therapy each year. Although headquartered in San Francisco, the R&D facility is located in Taiwan. Acepodia also has two CDMO partners- Mycenax and Steminent Biotherapeutics.
