Wu Yifang has confirmed his new destination after leaving the FOSUN PHARMA system where he served for 20 years.

On October 10, EVEREST MED, an innovative pharmaceutical company headquartered in Jiaxing, announced that Wu Yifang has become the company's new executive director and chairman of the board.

The former chairman Fu Wei has been reassigned as honorary chairman of the board. Fu Wei is the CEO of Cambridge Capital, which is a major shareholder of EVEREST MED, providing strong support in terms of funding, resources, and strategy.

The day before accepting the new appointment, Wu Yifang announced his joining of Cambridge Capital as an executive operating partner.

Wu Yifang, Executive Director and Chairman of EVEREST MED

Wu Yifang has over 30 years of professional experience in the pharmaceutical field and transformed FOSUN PHARMA into an innovative drug enterprise.

For EVEREST MED, which is at a critical period of self-developed transformation, Wu's arrival may inject new momentum. His work focus will be on "strategic transactions, R&D innovation, and key stakeholder management."

Industry insiders indicate that Wu's experience in sales network construction and medical insurance negotiations will also help expand EVEREST MED's sales team.

Veteran Takes Charge

Born in 1969, Wu Yifang is 56 years old this year, and his career has almost spanned the entire development cycle of China's pharmaceutical industry.

He started early at Xuzhou Biochemical Pharmaceutical Factory (the predecessor of Wanbang Pharmaceutical), working his way up from grassroots positions in production and finance to deputy factory director.

As the enterprise restructured and merged into the FOSUN PHARMA system, Wu Yifang has served as president and CEO of FOSUN PHARMA since 2016, fully responsible for group operations.

Until his departure at the end of September this year, he served within the FOSUN PHARMA system for over 20 years. During this period, he promoted the company's global strategic layout and facilitated the introduction of mRNA technology to China during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wu's deep experience in biopharmaceutical innovation aligns perfectly with EVEREST MED's current focus.

In June this year, EVEREST MED's management team first showcased the progress of self-developed technology and new mRNA tumor pipeline.

The company introduced that the personalized tumor therapeutic vaccine EVM16 has shown efficacy in preclinical studies and completed first patient dosing in March.

Its Phase II clinical trial has completed dose escalation for low and medium dose groups, with positive preliminary data. Even at low doses, the vaccine can still stimulate specific T-cell immune responses in advanced cancer patients.

Another universal "off-the-shelf" tumor vaccine EVM14 targets five tumor-associated antigens and is suitable for squamous non-small cell lung cancer and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. It received clinical approval in China at the end of July, becoming the company's first mRNA tumor vaccine to achieve dual filing in China and the US.

Its greatest advantage lies in not requiring individual customization for patients, which can significantly reduce production costs and has potential for multi-tumor applications.

EVM14's global multicenter Phase I clinical trial completed first patient enrollment in the third quarter of this year, with collaborating institutions including MD Anderson Cancer Center in the US and Shanghai Chest Hospital.

With Wu Yifang's joining, EVEREST MED is expected to accelerate the clinical progress and commercial transformation of its mRNA tumor pipeline.

Core Revenue Drivers

Regarding Wu Yifang's appointment and board adjustments, the company stated it will help strengthen governance structure, optimize strategic layout, and enhance overall competitiveness.

During his time at FOSUN PHARMA, Wu Yifang led the strategic transformation from generic drugs to innovative drugs, an experience expected to accelerate EVEREST MED's "license-in + self-developed" strategy implementation.

Three years ago, EVEREST MED's management proactively adjusted its R&D pipeline, reducing some popular tumor pipelines and instead focusing on three potential areas: anti-infection, nephrology, and autoimmune diseases, concentrating resources to advance product commercialization.

Initial results are showing.

In July 2023, Elores® (eravacycline) was approved for market, addressing treatment needs for multidrug-resistant bacterial infections. From January to June this year, Elores® achieved revenue of 143 million yuan, a 6% year-over-year increase.

In November 2023, the second product Nefecon® was approved in China as the world's first targeted therapy for IgA nephropathy, filling the domestic gap for source treatment of this disease.

From January to August this year, Nefecon® achieved sales revenue of 825 million yuan. Management expects its annual sales to exceed 1.2-1.4 billion yuan, with potential growth to 2.4-2.6 billion yuan by 2026.

The third product Velsipity® (etrasimod) for moderate to severe active ulcerative colitis has been launched first in the Greater Bay Area, with its new drug application in mainland China accepted for review, expected to be approved in the first half of 2026.

These three core products constitute EVEREST MED's commercialization "revenue drivers."

Management expects that by 2030, the peak sales of these three products in their licensed territories will reach 1.5 billion yuan, 5 billion yuan, and 5 billion yuan respectively.

EVEREST MED's management believes it can achieve sales targets of 1.6-1.8 billion yuan this year and expects to achieve positive operating cash flow in the fourth quarter.

Wu Yifang has successfully promoted FOSUN PHARMA's products into overseas markets including Europe, America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, with international experience in innovative R&D, licensing, and commercialization, which may accelerate the new company's drug application process in European and American markets.

Multiple Pipeline Development

"Companies need to transform from pure drug commercialization entities to technology-exporting innovative pharmaceutical enterprises," an investor stated. EVEREST MED needs greater imagination space.

In 2022, its management clearly stated the goal to promote self-developed research through products with high certainty that have huge commercialization prospects in China and the Asia-Pacific region and can generate stable cash flow.

In terms of funding, EVEREST MED raised 1.553 billion Hong Kong dollars through placement at the end of July, with 50% allocated to autonomous global R&D platform and new product pipeline development.

After completing the placement, its total cash balance exceeds 2.5 billion yuan, providing guarantee for R&D investment and market expansion.

Besides mRNA technology, EVEREST MED is also exploring next-generation tumor immunotherapy.

Based on its self-developed targeted LNP (tLNP) system, it is developing autologous CAR-T projects for treating tumors and autoimmune diseases, potentially solving traditional CAR-T therapy's problems of high cost and long preparation cycles.

"The autologous CAR-T project EVM18 has completed multiple non-human primate (monkey) studies and determined clinical candidate molecules, expected to initiate clinical trials by the end of 2025," the company stated.

In August this year, EVEREST MED increased its stake in I-Mab (formerly TI Inno) by $30.9 million, holding approximately 16.1% of shares in total, becoming its largest shareholder.

I-Mab focuses on precision tumor immunotherapy and, like EVEREST MED, is an innovative pharmaceutical company incubated by Cambridge Capital. This investment can strengthen the company's strategic synergy in the oncology field.

Wu Yifang has promoted the listing of innovative drugs such as CAR-T therapy (Yescarta), and his experience is expected to accelerate EVEREST MED's related self-developed project clinical transformation.

Daring to make choices and good at screening, EVEREST MED has regained market trust. Since the beginning of 2024, its stock price has risen over 200%, with market value recovering to over 20 billion Hong Kong dollars at its peak.

The company also reaffirmed its focus on Nefecon® and Velsipity® as "dual blockbusters," leveraging the synergistic effects of Elores®, EVER001, and other "high-potential combinations," with expected future peak sales exceeding 25 billion yuan.

With targets set and new leadership in place, the report card awaits.