Singapore: China's clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, Ascentage Pharma, announced collaboration with San Francisco-based UNITY Biotechnology to develop senolytic treatments for age-related disease.

Working over a decade, Ascentage Pharma has established the best-in-class compound library and clinical-stage lead compounds for oncology therapeutics and has created small molecule compounds targeting programmed cell death.

Meanwhile, UNITY Biotechnology has been working for four years on age-related pathologies like osteoarthritis, atherosclerosis, glaucoma, and kidney disease. Dr Nathaniel David, founder and CEO of UNITY Biotechnology, said,"We have evaluated a wide panel of drug candidates that clear senescent cells, and Ascentage's compounds are some of the best we have seen. Access to their compound library through this collaboration will significantly accelerate our efforts to develop drugs to improve healthspan by halting or reversing several age-related diseases."

Dr David further added, "This partnership will allow us to reach a global market." As part of the deal, the companies will also form a joint venture for the development and commercialization of senolytic drugs in China.

Dr Dajun Yang, Ascentage Chairman and CEO, said, "We are one of the leading biopharmaceutical companies with clinical stage compounds targeting key proteins that control programmed cell death pathways. We are very pleased to work with UNITY and target several unmet medical indications outside of the oncology space, with each aging-related disease potentially representing a multi-billion-dollar market."