WuXi AppTec bets on expansion in Europe

Interview

European Biotech Magazine: Dr. Yang, WuXi AppTec offers virtually every technology and scientific capability one could ask for today. How do you view the landscape of the many highly specialized German companies?

Steve Yang: Europe generates outstanding science. The challenge is transforming that science into drug candidates, development programs, and ultimately medicines. Anything that accelerates that translation process creates value. That is where we believe we can contribute.

European Biotech Magazine: Is that also why you expanded your Munich site?

Steve Yang: Exactly. When we acquired the Munich company Crelux, the team consisted of about 30 employees working in approximately 700 square meters. Today, roughly ten years later, the site has grown to more than 100 employees. Around 70 percent hold a Master’s or PhD degree. The laboratory and office space has expanded to about 3,000 square meters, and we continue to invest. Our goal is to develop the site into a global center of excellence for discovery biology.

European Biotech Magazine: How important is it for you to be physically close to your European customers? Couldn’t you simply say, “Come to our facilities in China, we can do everything there and ship the products back to Europe”? Or has the situation changed to the point where development and manufacturing capabilities are now also required in Europe?

Steve Yang: We believe globalization and localization are two sides of the same coin. By operating facilities across multiple regions, we can offer customers greater flexibility and a more secure supply chain. Although these facilities are geographically distributed, they all operate under the same global quality standards and are managed by the same global organization.

European Biotech Magazine: Speaking of customer relationships and trust: Do you still have to earn your customers’ trust every day, or has your reputation reached the point where customers already know what to expect?

Steve Yang: Trust is never something you achieve once and then keep forever. It has to be earned continuously. Science evolves, and customer needs evolve as well. Our focus is therefore on continuous improvement and on earning our customers’ trust again and again.

European Biotech News: Can you give us a concrete example?

Steve Yang: Certainly. Last year alone, we underwent 741 audits by customers and regulatory authorities. That included more than 50 inspections by regulatory agencies, as well as approximately 60 information security audits. None of those audits resulted in critical findings. Maintaining that level of performance requires constant effort. Every year we must demonstrate once again that our quality systems, our data protection, our intellectual property protection, and our manufacturing standards continue to meet the highest expectations.

Targeted Protein Degradation and Molecular Glues

European Biotech Magazine: Let’s talk about one of today’s most exciting scientific fields: targeted protein degradation and molecular glues. These technologies are rapidly becoming major areas of drug discovery. It almost seems as though conventional antibodies could one day appear old-fashioned compared with degraders, proximity-inducing compounds, and other approaches that enable entirely new ways of manipulating proteins.

Steve Yang: I completely share that enthusiasm. Today, we have one of the largest scientific teams in the industry working on heterobifunctional molecules, what most people simply call degraders. Every stage of development presents its own scientific challenges, and we aim to provide solutions along that entire journey.

European Biotech Magazine: Imagine your ideal future. Would it be a world in which everyone simply follows the science? One in which researchers choose the best partner regardless of whether that partner is located in China, Europe, or the United States?

Steve Yang: Yes, very much so. Our vision is simple: every drug can be made, and every disease can be treated. Achieving that requires solving countless scientific, technical, and operational challenges. Healthcare is fundamentally different from many other industries. Diseases do not recognize national borders. There is no German version of cardiovascular disease, and there is no American version of cancer. Patients everywhere deserve access to high-quality medicines. Science also has no borders. Researchers publish their discoveries, and knowledge spreads around the world. That exchange of knowledge is one of the greatest strengths of science.