HitGen Receives New Funding to Discover Novel Therapeutics for Underserved Diseases

• Company enters into new agreement with the Gates Foundation to identify novel drug leads targeting tuberculosis and malaria and new agents for non-hormonal contraception.

CHENGDU, China, Nov. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Shanghai Stock Exchange listed company HitGen Inc. ("HitGen", SSE: 688222.SH), today announced that it has entered into a new contract agreement with the Gates Foundation. HitGen will leverage its industry-leading DNA-encoded library (DEL) platform to identify novel drug leads for the treatment of underserved diseases including tuberculosis and malaria, as well as to discover novel agents for non-hormonal contraception. 

Under the terms of the agreement, HitGen will conduct DEL screening against 15 drug targets identified by the Gates Foundation in cooperation with its partners in academia and research institutes. HitGen will receive funding for the discovery work from the Gates Foundation, building upon a previous project supported by the foundation under which HitGen identified novel drug leads for the treatment of malaria and tuberculosis.

"We are honored to continue this important work with support from the Gates Foundation," said Dr. Jin Li, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of HitGen Inc. "We look forward to engaging with other world-leading philanthropic and academic institutions to deliver transformative solutions for patients with unmet medical needs."

HitGen is a world leader in the development of DEL technology and applications to early-stage small molecule drug discovery. Its platform includes over 1.2 trillion small molecules generated by the DEL technology, and the efficiency of the screening process has made it possible for HitGen to enable drug discovery projects for many organizations around the world.

About HitGen Inc.

HitGen Inc. (SSE: 688222.SH), is a drug discovery research company headquartered in Chengdu, China, with subsidiaries in Cambridge, UK and Houston, USA. HitGen has established leading technology platforms to enable the discovery and optimization of small molecules and nucleic acid-based drugs. Our key technology platforms include world-leading DNA-encoded library technology (DEL), fragment-based drug discovery and structure-based drug design technologies (FBDD/SBDD), as well as the emerging technology platforms for oligonucleotide-based therapeutics (OBT), and targeted protein degradation technology (TPD). Meanwhile, we are developing a DEL+AI+Automated DMTA (Design-Make-Test-Analyze) molecular optimization platform to accelerate the discovery and optimization process of preclinical candidate compounds. Through our diverse and flexible business models, we have built up collaboration partnerships with several hundred biopharmaceutical research organizations worldwide. HitGen has multiple programmes from early discovery to clinical trial stage.

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