Michael Yu

Biography

With a doctoral degree in Molecular Genetics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and postdoctoral training in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), Dr. Michael Yu has been designated as a distinguished expert in China’s “Thousand Talents Program” and is distinguished as the only person in China who has invented and commercialized two Class One novel drugs in China (Oncorine® and Conbercept®). Oncorine was the first oncolytic drug developed by genomic engineering, which set China as the first country in the world to approve  an immune-oncolytic therapy.  The US FDA approved a same class drug in 2015, ten years after Oncorine’s China approval.  Conbercept is the first innovative drug invented in China that was officially named by the World Health Organization. In November, 2016, the US FDA approved Conbercept to start phase III directly in US without first requiring Phase I studies, making it the first China originated drug to have this distinction.  Dr. Yu was recognized in 2013 as the “Most Influential Overseas Returnee in Life Sciences”, in 2014 as a “Top Ten Figure of China Innovation”, in 2015 as “The Most Admirable Scientist”, the “E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2015”, and the recipient of the “Mayor of Suzhou City’s Award on Scientific and Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship”, and in 2016 Dr. Yu was again recognized as the “Distinguished Entrepreneur, Jiangsu Province”, “The Top Ten Scientific and Technological Entrepreneurs of Suzhou City in 2016”, “The Top Ten Break Through Innovation Technology Entrepreneur Award for the Jiangsu Province”and “CCTV Person of The Year in Innovation for Science and Technology in 2016”.With more than twenty years of industrial and managerial experience in American and Chinese biopharmaceutical companies, Dr. Yu founded Innovent Biologics, Inc. in August 2011, a company dedicated to developing and manufacturing novel biopharmaceutical drugs for the treatment of various life-threatening diseases. As a special recognition of Innovent’s achievements in innovation-driven development, Innovent was invited to join and speak at the sixth U.S. – China Innovation Dialogue that took place at the State Department in Washington D.C. in June 2015.  Innovent’s achievements were picked up in the People’s Daily and The Wall Street Journal with comprehensive coverage. Innovent’s R&D prowess was also recognized as of the “Top Ten Breakthroughs in the China Biopharmaceutical Industry” in 2015. In June 2016, Innovent was selected to attend the National “12th Five-Year” science and technology innovation achievement exhibition, where Innovent was widely recognized by national leaders.In January 2017, Dr. Michael Yu, was selected as the “2016 CCTV Person of the Year in Innovation for Science and Technology”. The award was jointly organized by CCTV Technology, the Ministry of Education, and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Other co-winners of the awared include “Long March 5”, “Tiangong 2”, and “Shenzhou 11” space ship.    

Research Interest

Pharma