HANGZHOU, China. – 23 October 2020 – Ranok Therapeutics Co. Ltd., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapeutics for cancers and other serious diseases, today announced that it was selected as one of three winning Asia-based startup companies in the first Bayer-MassCONNECT Asia Pitch Competition.

The Bayer-MassCONNECT Asia program is a collaboration between Bayer Pharmaceuticals and the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio) to foster the startup community in Asia with a special focus on China. This program will provide formal mentorship to entrepreneurs in the life sciences and connect them to the expert resources and knowledge base in the leading biomedical cluster located around Boston Massachusetts USA. The goal of the Bayer-MassCONNECT Asia program is to accelerate the development of promising therapies to fill unmet medical needs and benefit patients.

During the competition, Kevin P. Foley, Ph.D., Ranok's Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer presented on “Chaperone-mediated Targeted Protein Degradation (CHAMP^TM): Safer, More Effective Tumor-targeted Cancer Therapies.” Afterwards Dr. Foley said, “Ranok was selected as one of only eight startups to present at the first Bayer-MassCONNECT pitch competition to be held in Asia. We are very honored to be one of the winners from this select group and appreciate the panelists’ votes of confidence in the promise shown by our technology and pipeline of first-in-class therapeutics that we are advancing towards the clinic.”

The Bayer-MassCONNECT Asia program will provide 4-weeks of mentorship, where industry experts will offer guidance in areas such as developing business plans, launching and growing companies, and raising capital. “Ranok is excited to be among the first startups in Asia to participate in MassBio's MassCONNECT program,” said Ranok's Founder and CEO Weiwen Ying, Ph.D. “As the premier mentoring program dedicated to the life sciences, the opportunity to participate in MassCONNECT and receive input from seasoned entrepreneurs and life science professionals is an enormously valuable opportunity for us as we continue to develop our CHAMP^TM technology and grow Ranok.”

About Ranok Therapeutics

Ranok is a privately held, emerging biopharmaceutical company that is pioneering its proprietary CHAMP^TM platform technology, an innovative approach to targeted protein degradation for the discovery and development of novel therapeutics. Ranok was founded by a leadership team composed of industry veterans from both Chinese and American biotech and pharmaceutical companies and is based in two of the world’s leading centers of innovation and medical research: Hangzhou China and Boston Massachusetts USA. By bringing together cutting edge medical research from both China and the United States, Ranok's goal is to create transformative medicines to benefit patients suffering from cancer and other serious diseases. For more information, please visit the company website at www.ranoktherapeutics.com  or follow us at LinkedIn and on Twitter @RanokTx.

About Bayer-MassCONNECT Asia

For further information, please visit MassBio's website:  https://www.massbio.org/news/recent-news/bayer-partners-with-massbio-to-launch-joint-mentoring-program-to-support-startups-in-china-and-asia/

About Ranok's CHAMP^TM platform

Chaperone-mediated Protein Degradation/Degrader (CHAMP^TM) technology is based on our founders' extensive backgrounds in protein homeostasis research. This technology takes advantage of different underlying biological processes from other targeted protein degradation approaches such as PROTAC, and has a number of unique advantages, including improved safety due to the selective targeting of tumors. Our proprietary R&D engine combines deep biological insight and chemistry expertise to iteratively discover and test new leads, rapidly identifying and advancing optimal development candidates for a variety of important disease targets.

Media & Investor Contact:
Ms. Xiaoyan Qiu
Ranok Therapeutics Co. Ltd.
bd@ranoktherapeutics.com