QL Biopharm Won the First Prize in the Finals of the HICOOL 2024 Global Entrepreneurship Competition
On August 23, 2024, the opening ceremony and award ceremony of the HICOOL 2024 Global Entrepreneurship Summit was held at the China International Exhibition Center (Shunyi Hall). Beijing QL Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “QL Biopharm”) won the first prize in the finals of the HICOOL 2024 Global Entrepreneurship Competition. Dr. Zhang Xujia, the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of QL Biopharm, represented the company to participate in the competition. The competition project “Research and Development Platform for Metabolic Series Innovative Drugs Based on GLP-1 Target” received high recognition from the judges and ultimately won the first prize in the local group with an outstanding performance of the first place in the finals.
In the current HICOOL 2024 Global Entrepreneurship Competition, after more than 200 days of intense competition, 12 first prize winners were selected from 7,406 venture projects and 9,700 global talents from 124 countries and regions worldwide, including 8 in the overseas group and 4 in the local group.
Dr. Zhang Xujia, the Founder of QL Biopharm, previously served as the Vice President of Research and Development at Novo Nordisk, led and established the E. coli recombinant protein technology platform for Novo Nordisk, and had over 30 years of experience in biopharmaceuticals and scientific research. Under the leadership of Dr. Zhang Xujia, the company is targeting the globally popular GLP-1 track for the treatment of diabetes and obesity and utilizes the company’s independently innovative technology platform to develop the next-generation GLP-1 and iterate semaglutide. The company’s product pipelines are highly differentiated and internationally competitive and have now fully entered the clinical stage in succession. Among them, ZT002 is currently the GLP-1 polypeptide with the longest half-life in the global market and clinical research GLP-1, and it is expected to achieve once dosing every month, which will greatly improve patient compliance. It has significant clinical demand and market differentiation compared to other similar weekly dosing products, especially in the stages requiring long-term maintenance therapy and preventing weight rebound, being an optimized solution urgently needed by patients with diabetes and obesity.
About the HICOOL Global Entrepreneurship Competition
Established in 2020, the HICOOL brand is a one-stop entrepreneurial ecosystem platform, with Beijing Overseas High-Level Talents Association as the sponsor. It relies on competitions, summits, ecosystem construction and other modes to solidify various tasks such as talent discovery, introduction, services, and guarantees, empowering entrepreneurship with technology and driving innovation with value.