Biocytogen Enters into Non-Exclusive Licensing Agreement with Qilu Pharmaceutical for a Fully Human VHH Antibody to Support Innovative Drug Development in Neuroscience

Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (“Biocytogen”, SSE: 688796; HKEX: 02315) today announced that it has entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Qilu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (“Qilu Pharmaceutical”) for a fully human VHH antibody molecule. Under the agreement, Biocytogen will grant Qilu Pharmaceutical non-exclusive rights to a fully human VHH antibody molecule to support its research and development of innovative therapeutics in the neuroscience field.

The licensed VHH antibody molecule was generated from Biocytogen’s proprietary RenNano^® platform. The RenNano^® platform is designed to discover fully human VHH antibody molecules with favorable specificity, binding affinity, and developability, and can generate molecular building blocks for the design and development of VHH antibodies, bispecific/multispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, and other innovative modalities. Through this license, Qilu Pharmaceutical may advance the research and development of the VHH antibody molecule in alignment with its own R&D strategy, with the future development modality to be flexibly determined according to project characteristics and therapeutic needs.

Qilu Pharmaceutical is a large pharmaceutical company in China that has long pursued innovation-driven development, with continued investment across chemical drugs, biologics, and innovative therapeutics. The company has established systematic capabilities spanning early discovery, development, manufacturing, and commercialization. This collaboration reflects the application potential of Biocytogen’s RenNano^® platform in neuroscience drug discovery and further expands the collaboration opportunities for Biocytogen’s fully human VHH antibody assets across different therapeutic areas and development approaches.

Dr. Yuelei Shen, President and CEO of Biocytogen, said: “We are pleased to enter into this collaboration with Qilu Pharmaceutical. Drug development in the neuroscience field involves high scientific and translational barriers and requires systematic consideration of target biology, molecular quality, and downstream development strategy. With their distinctive molecular features, VHH antibodies provide new possibilities for drug design in complex disease areas. Qilu Pharmaceutical has built strong capabilities in innovative drug R&D and industrialization. We look forward to seeing this fully human VHH antibody molecule align with Qilu Pharmaceutical’s R&D system and support its exploration of innovative programs with development potential, further expanding therapeutic opportunities in the neuroscience field.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Biocytogen will receive an upfront payment and is eligible to receive milestone payments upon the achievement of specified development, regulatory, and commercial milestones for related products. Other financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.

About Biocytogen
Biocytogen (SSE: 688796; HKEX: 02315) is a global biotechnology company that drives the research and development of novel antibody-based drugs with innovative technologies. Founded on gene editing technology, Biocytogen has established a dual-engine platform combining a fully human antibody library with an extensive target-humanized mouse model portfolio, enabling a systematic approach to accelerating global drug discovery and development.

Biocytogen has independently developed its proprietary RenMice^® (RenMab^®/RenLite^®/RenNano^®/RenTCR™/RenTCR mimic™) platforms for fully human monoclonal/bispecific/multispecific antibody discovery, bispecific antibody-drug conjugate discovery, hu-VHH discovery, and TCR mimic antibody discovery, and has established a sub-brand, RenSuper™ Biologics, to explore global partnerships for an off-the-shelf library of >1,000,000 fully human antibody sequences against over 1000 targets for worldwide collaboration. As of June 30, 2026, more than 455 agreements for therapeutic antibodies and clinical assets—spanning co-development, out-licensing, and transfers—have been established globally, including landmark partnerships with leading multinational pharmaceutical companies (MNCs). Biocytogen pioneered the generation of drug target knock-in humanized models for preclinical research, and currently provides a few thousand off-the-shelf animal and cell models under the company's sub-brand, BioMice™, along with preclinical pharmacology and gene-editing services for clients worldwide. Headquartered in Beijing, Biocytogen has branches in China (Haimen, Jiangsu, Shanghai), the USA (Boston, San Francisco, San Diego), and Germany (Heidelberg). For more information, please visit https://biocytogen.com.

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