Joshua ElkingtonFounder and General Partner at Axial

Founder Stories: Samantha Du, Co-Founder and CEO of Zai Lab

Name: Founder Stories: Samantha Du, Co-Founder and CEO of Zai Lab
Uploaded: 2022-10-04T13:32:01+00:00
Duration: 1 min 18 s
Channel: Joshua Elkington
Description: In this interview, Zai Lab Co‑Founder and CEO Samantha Du outlines the company’s current financial footing of roughly $400 million in cash and the dual…

4 Oct 2022 · 1 min

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1:18

In this interview, Zai Lab Co‑Founder and CEO Samantha Du outlines the company’s current financial footing of roughly $400 million in cash and the dual imperative to grow both top‑line revenue and bottom‑line profitability within China’s evolving healthcare system. She describes Zai Lab’s innovation model, which blends internal drug discovery with the acquisition of external assets to deliver best‑in‑class or first‑in‑class therapies for unmet medical needs. Du highlights two recent oncology launches: the GBM therapy Tezula, which captured about 66 % of the Hong Kong and Macau market within two quarters, and the ovarian‑cancer drug referred to as Zugeyla/Zozula, now moving toward first‑line use after compelling data presented at the ESMO meeting in Barcelona. The data show strong single‑agent activity in specific subpopulations, eliminating the need for combination regimens or biomarker testing and offering pharmacoeconomic advantages. Overall, the discussion emphasizes Zai Lab’s strategic focus on rapid commercialization of high‑impact oncology products while maintaining a balanced growth agenda.

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We are about 2.2 to 2.3 given the market condition, and we do have around $400 million cash in for us to use. And going forward, we not only need to grow bottom line, but most importantly, given the current stage of China's overall healthcare development, top line growth is also very important.
Tell us what the priority then in terms of new products, innovation and R&D spending.
Well, for us, we are innovative drug developers focusing really to bring either best in class or first in class from global perspective. To patients with unmet medical needs. Having said so, I think there are, you know, we can do internal discovery, and also in the meantime, we always look out what is the ones even better or earlier than us. So whichever one hits the mark, that's how we're going to bring them to the patients first.
Samantha, bring us up to speed with And I hope I'm pronouncing this correctly, Zugeyla, which is used in the treatment for ovarian cancer. Where do you stand in terms of development and clinical trials, and at what point is this going to become commercially available?
Well, you brought up this commercial, commercial ability on this product. I just want to be very pleased to announce to you this product along with our GBM product already launched to Hong Kong and Macau market for the last 2 quarters, especially for Tezula. It's a, you know, best-in-class opportunity. We are able to take 66% of the market share. And of course, we are a franchise. When we develop a drug, it's not just one indication. It's a franchise approach. Recently in ESMO meeting, and just took place in Barcelona. There's 3 very, very compelling data came, came out very positively for the company. One is for Zozula. Instead of second line, we now also can move to first line and moving to first line compared to our competitors, we got positive results not only for single cell monotherapy, but also this drug works beautifully well in the subpopulation groups. That means you actually don't need to do a combo. That means you don't have to do a biomarker analysis, which is even from a pharmacoeconomic perspective is really beneficial.