Hi VC friends - if you’re touring China for a VC wrapped newco play, cool, but when in-licensing an asset, check chain of title first: map inventors’ prior jobs against company founding and patent dates, demand executed assignments plus lab notebooks showing independent work, and search filings under their names. Basic KYC on founders often reveals overlapping employment at a direct competitor.
@srqstockpicker So many such cases...Kali Tx CEO is accused of the same thing, albeit theft from a large Chinese biotech. https://t.co/KcNQPlt3KR https://t.co/71imZLj3tO
Weihao Xu, CEO of Kali Therapeutics, was previously a key figure in BD at 🇨🇳 Harbour BioMed. Public records show that he joined the company in December 2021, holding senior roles including Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Business Officer, and President of U.S. Operations.
During his tenure, Xu led or participated in several transactions, including Harbour’s out‑licensing deal with AstraZeneca for HBM7022, a collaboration with CSPC Pharmaceutical Group on HBM9161, and a collaboration with Moderna.
In 2024, Xu departed Harbour and went on to found Kali Therapeutics. In October 2024, Harbour BioMed and its affiliate filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts, naming Xu as a defendant.
The lawsuit centers on trade secret protection, with Harbour alleging improper use of confidential information in connection with Xu’s departure and subsequent company formation. The claims reportedly relate to core technology platforms and partnership‑related information.
@jrkelly@PeterKolchinsky Everyone knows - here is $180M up front from Sanofi - to a 2 year old 2026 Endpoints 11 nominee (Kali Tx) which is the the middle of a trade secret lawsuit from the CEO’s former employer Harbour Biomed (similar to Beam) https://t.co/Dn2XCFoAEt
@drrichjlaw Here is $300M up front - for a Chinese PH1 GLP-1 oral https://t.co/dN5QJXtdib. That’s $700M plus I would guess another $100-150M in milestone payments - that’s sum of money in the hands of two Chinese discovery cos will pay for 8-10 new me2 programs
25 years after the human genome, new drug targets are still scarce: Since 2000, 312 new targets have been added, an 84% increase, but that works out to only about 12–15 a year.
Source: https://t.co/fD7EhiioCl