Eqrx Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. was established in a high profile with a round of fundraising of 200 million US dollars

A pharmaceutical company called eqrx was founded yesterday with a $200 million round a fundraising The CEO of the company is Alexis Boris, who is famous in the pharmaceutical industry The investors include arch, GV and other famous VC The company's goal is to find new drugs at a low cost, so it can sell them at a lower price and alleviate the problem of high drug prices in various countries Eqrx is going to be the first drug in 5 years and 10 drugs in 10 years Eqrx (meaning equal quality Rx, homogenous drug) has not published details, but according to the limited public information, it is intended to use efficient execution to quickly discover new drugs targeted at confirmed targets In other words, it is me too drug development This is certainly not a new concept Several of the most famous scientists in the history of pharmaceutical industry have praised the value of me too drugs For example, James Black said, "the most delicious basis for the discovery of a new drug is to start with an old drug" But in the last 10 years, the me too drugs have been obviously squeezed The big pharmaceutical companies with the most perfect platform and the most ability to make me too drugs have abandoned this model and preferred to be the first drugs with small indications The idea of reducing drug price through simple transformation of new drugs on the market has been put forward for a long time 12 years ago, two British professors prepared to add peg to all new drugs as a strategy to crack patents In the past 15 years, there have been several biotechnology companies using deuterium to crack patents, but these efforts have not had a great impact on drug price at present But this time, eqrx is coming in a fierce way Not only the round a of 200 million US dollars is impressive, but also everyone involved has a good reputation in the industry Borisy created combinatorrx based on the development of combination therapy after he came out of Schreiber group Although it was not successful, it was also a unique attempt So far, it is the only biotechnology company based on the discovery of FDC He later founded foundation medicine and blueprint medicine, both of which were successful He is also a partner of third rock and has invested in many well-known biotechnology enterprises The VC that participates in eqrx investment is also the industry elite with high reputation, so this company does not seem to be cooking cold rice So what's the difference this time? Historically, the price of new drugs has little to do with market absorption, because doctors are only responsible for prescribing the best drugs for patients and do not care about the price In the past, the pressure of the payment department was relatively small, and it was not as calculated as it is now Therefore, in the 1980s and 1990s, there were usually four or five drugs with the same mechanism that would be competitive enough to cause the price to drop This situation has changed in the last 10 years, and hepatitis C has set a precedent for the second new drug on the market to gain market share through price reduction Nice in Europe, especially in the UK, has repeatedly refused to pay for highly innovative products, including PD-1, on the basis of price As the price of new drugs continues to soar, some believe it's time for prices to affect market performance So even though me too is an old concept, the current payment environment gives this strategy a new living environment.