Leaders from UCB's China Headquarters, a Global Top 50 Pharmaceutical Company, Visit Shenzhen Cell Valley for Inspection and Research

      On May 8, a delegation from the China headquarters of UCB, a global top 50 pharmaceutical company—UCB Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.—including Huang Wenjie, Vice President of Corporate and Government Affairs; Feng Hongji, Head of Public Affairs; and Peng Cheng, Head of External Cooperation, visited Shenzhen Cell Valley for inspection and research. They were accompanied by Zhong Hai, Deputy Director of the Shenzhen Municipal Science, Technology, and Innovation Bureau; Wang Shaowen, Deputy Director of the Social Development Science and Technology Division; Yang Tao, Standing Committee Member and Deputy District Mayor of Pingshan District; Liu Yingjie, Director of the Pingshan District Science, Technology, and Innovation Bureau; and Liao Wen, Deputy Director. Shenzhen Cell Valley Chairman Shi Yuanyuan, Chief Scientist Wang Jianxun, Deputy General Manager Tang Xiaomeng, Assistant to the Chairman Wei Zheng, Head of R&D Zhao Lijun, and Director of the General Administration Office Luan Zhishi extended a warm welcome and held symposium discussions.

Led by Chairman Shi Yuanyuan, the UCB team toured the smart exhibition hall and the digital intelligent monitoring screens, gaining an initial understanding of Shenzhen Cell Valley's development history, strategic layout, team capabilities, and the high-yield, low-cost advantages of its CAR-T and CAR-NK cell products prepared using its unique core technology—retroviral vector technology (Pack-SS and other systems).

During the symposium, Chairman Shi Yuanyuan expressed his sincere gratitude to the municipal and district leaders for their support and trust in Cell Valley, noting that Cell Valley was honored to be the only enterprise in Pingshan District selected for on-site research by UCB China headquarters. He then provided a detailed introduction to the current state of the cell therapy industry, Shenzhen Cell Valley's industrial layout in cell and gene therapy, and the clinical application progress of its products and research. Chairman Shi stated that Shenzhen Cell Valley's independently developed product pipeline has achieved breakthrough progress from R&D to production and clinical application, with the clinical application of cell products maturing and poised to bring profound changes to the cell and gene therapy field. Furthermore, non-genetically modified immune cell products, particularly peripheral blood-derived NK cell products, have already achieved preparation standards far exceeding the allogeneic transplantation criteria set by the U.S. FDA. These products will play a valuable role in cancer treatment, immune and neurological diseases, sub-health chronic disease prevention, and anti-aging, making significant contributions to precision health management.

UCB Vice President Huang Wenjie highly recognized the core capabilities of the Cell Valley team and the company's technological development prospects. She noted that UCB China would adopt an innovative philosophy of complementing, connecting, empowering, and achieving win-win outcomes to build an open innovation ecosystem in China, focusing on patient needs. She expressed hope to take this exchange as an opportunity to strengthen cooperation, share resources, and explore new collaborative approaches, jointly applying agile and self-driven innovation capabilities to provide new possibilities for treating more diseases. With the support of Shenzhen and Pingshan's favorable innovation environment and policies, they aim to promote high-quality development in the biopharmaceutical industry.

About UCB

Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, UCB is a global biopharmaceutical company with worldwide sales of €5.5 billion, ranking among the top 50 global pharmaceutical companies and listed on the Euronext stock exchange. UCB focuses on developing innovative drugs and therapies for severe diseases of the immune and nervous systems. The company currently employs approximately 8,700 people, operates in nearly 40 countries, and invests about 25% of its annual sales in R&D to drive continuous innovation. UCB's extensive product portfolio covers broad-spectrum therapies, epilepsy emergency treatments, and rare childhood epilepsy syndromes, providing personalized solutions for patients of all ages. At the same time, UCB stands out in the field of immune system diseases and is actively expanding into rare diseases, dedicated to addressing unmet medical needs. To date, UCB has launched six innovative drugs in China, with five additional novel-mechanism drugs expected to be approved in China by 2025.