Recently, the finals of “Maker Shanghai 2026” and the 11th “Maker in China” Shanghai SME Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, hosted by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, concluded successfully at Changning Distinct, Shanghai. LW231, a bi-functional, dual-target drug for complete cure of Hepatitis B, independently developed by LWBP, stood out among more than 1,000 participants and won the third prize. It was also selected for the “Top 50” released by the competition.
LW231 is an innovative bi-functional/dual-target drug developed by Longwood Biopharmaceuticals that, for the first time globally, combines the cGAS/STING pathway with a nucleocapsid modulator for immune-synergistic antiviral therapy against chronic hepatitis B. It has entered Phase II clinical trials. Mechanism-of-action studies have confirmed that LW231, while inhibiting viral replication, activates the liver’s innate immune response and completely clears HBV-infected hepatocytes through liver macrophages, achieving a complete cure of hepatitis B. As clinical trials of the drug progress, LW231 is expected to become a milestone drug in the field of hepatitis B diagnosis and treatment.
About Maker Shanghai 2026
“Maker Shanghai 2026” and the 11th “Maker in China” Shanghai SME Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition is the Shanghai regional competition of the MIIT’s “Maker in China” SME Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. Outstanding teams from this competition will represent Shanghai in the “Maker China” national competition. As an important brand event in Shanghai’s SME innovation and entrepreneurship field, “Maker Shanghai” has been held for ten consecutive editions, attracting more than 6,500 innovation and entrepreneurship projects, with 96 enterprises advancing to the national event list, and outstanding enterprises from previous editions having raised over RMB 197.3 billion in total.
About LWBP
Founded in 2012, Longwood Biopharmaceuticals is an innovative drug R&D company led by world-renowned experts in chemical drug R&D. The company is committed to the independent R&D of internationally leading innovative drugs with global intellectual property rights, focusing on addressing unmet clinical needs. It concentrates on the R&D and industrialization of innovative drugs in fields such as immune antiviral, immune anti-tumor, and autoimmune diseases, and has launched multiple independently developed small-molecule innovative drug projects (FIC), with several products entering the clinical trial stage. The clinical evaluation indicators of its core products have reached internationally leading levels, and they are expected to become major breakthrough achievements in relevant fields.