SHANGHAI, June 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Everest Medicines (HKEX 1952.HK, "Everest", or the "Company"), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialization of innovative therapeutics, today announced that it has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Jiangsu Vcare PharmaTech Co., Ltd. ("Vcare PharmaTech"), for the development, registration and commercialization of Sumecigrel (formerly known as Vicagrel) across the Asia-Pacific region, including Southeast Asia, South Korea, Australia, Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR, and Taiwan region, China. Pursuant to the agreement, Everest Medicines will pay Vcare PharmaTech an upfront payment of RMB 20 million, along with subsequent milestone payments and commercial supply procurement.
This collaboration strengthens the Company's cardiovascular portfolio and highlights Everest's continued focus on the Asia-Pacific market, supporting the advancement of its regional strategy and the development of innovative therapies.
Sumecigrel is an antiplatelet agent and a new-generation oral P2Y12 receptor antagonist. It is being clinically developed for the treatment and prevention of atherothrombotic events such as acute coronary syndrome (ACS), ischemic stroke (IS) and peripheral arterial disease (PAD). As a novel antithrombotic drug self-developed by Vcare PharmaTech, the product is currently advancing preparations for NDA in China, the United States, Europe.
The molecular design of Sumecigrel targets the black box warning associated with clopidogrel resistance. It innovatively optimizes the metabolic pathway of clopidogrel while retaining its active metabolite, striking a better balance between therapeutic benefits and bleeding risks inherent to antiplatelet medications. Featuring faster onset of action, lower dosage, more stable efficacy, better controllable bleeding risks, reduced metabolic burden and broader clinical applicability, Sumecigrel is a novel antiplatelet candidate with prominent Best-in-Class potential. It is expected to address the increasingly personalized demands for antithrombotic therapy and become a blockbuster product in the antithrombotic market.
"This collaboration with Vcare PharmaTech marks another step in strengthening our presence in the Asia-Pacific region," said Mr. Yifang Wu, Chairman of the Board of Everest Medicines. "Sumecigrel is a next-generation oral P2Y12 receptor antagonist with Best-in-Class potential, offering differentiated clinical benefits and complementing Everest's cardiovascular pipeline. Leveraging our clinical, regulatory, and commercial capabilities across the Asia-Pacific as a global platform for innovative therapies, Everest will drive Sumecigrel's development and commercialization to realize its full clinical and commercial value and bring new treatment options to more patients."
"As our self-developed novel antithrombotic drug, Sumecigrel represents our first innovative pharmaceutical product, "said Dr. Gong Yanchun, Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Vcare PharmaTech. "This strategic partnership with Everest Medicines serves as the first step of Sumecigrel's global commercialization strategy, creating a win-win situation for an original innovation enterprise and an international commercial platform. Powered by AI-driven differentiated original design, Vcare PharmaTech consistently focuses on the development of innovative drugs and leading therapies, standing as a pioneer of the next-generation original innovation in the global antiplatelet field. We will accelerate the global R&D and registration progress of Sumecigrel, consolidate its global competitive edges, and contribute Chinese innovation to the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases across the Asia-Pacific and the world at large."
Cardio-cerebrovascular diseases rank among the leading causes of death worldwide. Related fatalities rose sharply to 17.9 million in 2019, accounting for approximately 32% of all global deaths. Around 85% of these deaths were attributed to myocardial infarction (a major type of ACS) and stroke. The death toll from cardio-cerebrovascular diseases further climbed to 19.2 million in 2023.
Antiplatelet drugs inhibit platelet activation, adhesion and aggregation to reduce thrombotic risks, and are widely used for the prevention and treatment of atherothrombotic diseases. P2Y12 receptor antagonists are a major category of mainstream antiplatelet medications. Currently marketed products in this class continue to face challenges in balancing variability in efficacy and bleeding risk across patients, and optimizing the overall clinical benefit–risk profile remains an important unmet medical need in this therapeutic area.
As a next-generation P2Y12 receptor antagonist, Sumecigrel has completed Phase I, Phase II, China-US PK/PD bridging study and Phase III clinical trials. It has demonstrated favorable efficacy and safety with solid clinical value, and is poised to become an improved treatment option for patients with ACS, IS and PAD.
About Sumecigrel
Sumecigrel is the world's first new-generation P2Y12 receptor antagonist designed to resolve clopidogrel's heavy reliance on CYP2C19 genetic polymorphism by optimizing its metabolic pathway while retaining clopidogrel's active metabolite. It is indicated for atherothrombotic events including acute coronary syndrome, ischemic stroke and peripheral arterial disease. It stands as one of Vcare PharmaTech's flagship achievements underpinned by the philosophy of differentiated original design to tackle unmet clinical needs.
Its molecular design findings were published in Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (JMC), a top journal of the American Chemical Society, and highlighted by SciBX under Nature Portfolio, which recognized it as one of the most commercially promising projects in the field of novel drugs. Currently in preparation for NDA submissions in multiple countries, Sumecigrel possesses strong Best-in-Class potential and broad commercial prospects, and is expected to reshape the antithrombotic market where no new innovative drugs targeting the same mechanism have been launched for over a decade.
About Everest Medicines
Everest Medicines is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing innovative pharmaceutical products that address critical unmet medical needs for patients in global markets. The management team of Everest Medicines has deep expertise and an extensive track record both in China and with leading global pharmaceutical companies.
The Company's therapeutic areas of focus include CKM (cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic), autoimmune, ophthalmology and critical care. Everest Medicines has developed a fully integrated commercialization platform that combines omnichannel commercial capabilities with end-to-end product lifecycle management. Leveraging its proprietary mRNA platform, the Company is advancing its existing pipeline, including mRNA in vivo CAR-T and mRNA cancer vaccines, while selectively expanding into additional high-value therapeutic areas with blockbuster potential, and accelerating its global expansion. For more information, please visit the Company's website: www.everestmedicines.com.
About Vcare PharmaTech
Founded in 2010 by professors from China Pharmaceutical University and overseas returnee talents, Vcare PharmaTech is a commercial-stage innovative biopharmaceutical enterprise adopting AI-enabled differentiated original drug design and dedicated to developing innovative drugs and leading therapies. The Company has built a full-spectrum innovation system covering the entire R&D and industrialization lifecycle of new drugs, from AI-powered differentiated project initiation and preclinical candidate discovery to integrated pharmaceutical development and green manufacturing.
It houses the Nanjing Key Laboratory for AI-Driven Drug Design and Nanjing Engineering Research Center for Synthetic Biology and Flow Chemistry.
Focused on addressing unmet clinical demands via differentiated approaches, Vcare PharmaTech develops a tiered, high-quality and diversified pipeline of innovative drugs targeting treatment resistance, drug resistance and targeted selectivity optimization. Its product portfolio covers major chronic disease areas including inflammation and autoimmunity, cardio-cerebrovascular diseases and oncology, striving to deliver superior treatment solutions for patients worldwide. For more information, please visit www.vcarepharmatech.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
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