Triastek, an early Yunqi Capital portfolio company, forms strategic partnership with Johnson & Johnson and secures equity investment | Yunqi Partners

Yunqi Capital portfolio company Triastek has announced a partnership with Johnson & Johnson to jointly develop novel oral drugs. At the same time, J&J's venture arm, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC), has made an equity investment in Triastek.

This follows the strategic financing round Triastek closed in July. In this edition of "Yunqi Partners," we bring you the company's latest updates.

01 Partnership and Equity Investment Close Simultaneously

Recently, Triastek announced that the company and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Triastek (Shanghai) Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd., have signed a collaboration and licensing agreement with Johnson & Johnson. The two sides will combine J&J's accumulated expertise in drug development with Triastek's capabilities in 3D-printed pharmaceuticals and oral delivery of drugs such as peptides to jointly develop novel oral therapeutics. Simultaneously, JJDC has made an equity investment in Triastek.

Collaborations between multinational pharma companies and domestic biotech firms — one side contributing resources and distribution channels, the other contributing technology and platforms — have become a familiar pattern in recent years. What sets this apart is that the partnership and investment are happening together — J&J isn't treating Triastek merely as a project collaborator, but is coming in as a shareholder. For a pharmaceutical technology company, this dual-role arrangement is uncommon.

Under the agreement, Triastek will leverage its melt extrusion deposition combined with semi-solid extrusion (MED&SSE) 3D printing pharmaceutical technology and its 3DμS®-OM platform, integrating room-temperature, low-shear manufacturing processes with tablet structure and drug-release profile design to address delivery challenges in oral drug development.

02 The Tech Foundation: MED&SSE Process and 3DμS®-OM Platform

In this process, MED handles printing the outer shell, while SSE prints the drug-loaded core. SSE's relatively low printing temperature is particularly suitable for peptides and biologic macromolecules, minimizing activity loss from conventional high-temperature processes.

Building on this, the 3DμS®-OM platform employs a dual-chamber structure design to protect peptides from degradation in the stomach, delivering them to targeted absorption sites in the gastrointestinal tract, and modulates release kinetics through formulation structure optimization to improve oral peptide bioavailability.

Triastek was founded in July 2015, headquartered in Jiangning, Nanjing, by Dr. Senping Cheng and Dr. Xiaoling Li, an American expert and educator in pharmaceutical formulation. The company pioneered the melt extrusion deposition (MED®) 3D printing drug process.

Based on this core technology, the company has successively built five delivery platforms: modified release (3DμS®-MR), solubility enhancement (3DμS®-SE), intestinal targeting (3DμS®-IT), gastric retention (3DμS®-GR), and oral biologics (3DμS®-OM). The internal 3D structure of each tablet is first designed in silico; this structure then determines the timing, location, and dosage of drug release in the body. According to the company's website, it has completed over 70 innovative formulation designs, validated with more than 10 human clinical datasets, and accumulated over 330 patent applications covering 17 countries and regions.

03 From One License to Five Clinical Programs

Regulatory credentials and industrialization capabilities are hard thresholds when multinational pharma companies select partners. In April 2020, Triastek's MED 3D printing technology was selected for the U.S. FDA's Emerging Technology Program, making it the only Chinese pharmaceutical company admitted. The company also participated in drafting U.S. Pharmacopeia industry standards for 3D-printed drugs. In September 2025, the Jiangsu Provincial Medical Products Administration issued Triastek the nation's first Drug Manufacturing License for 3D-printed drug production, making Triastek the only company in China to hold this license and the second globally to achieve industrialization of 3D-printed pharmaceuticals.

On pipeline progress, Triastek currently holds the record for most 3D-printed drugs approved for clinical trials globally, with five products — D23, T20G, T24, T25, and T26 — having secured seven IND approvals across China and the U.S. In May this year, D23 (budesonide delayed-release tablets) for primary IgA nephropathy (IgAN) completed full patient enrollment for its Phase II trial; the drug uses programmed release to deliver budesonide precisely to the terminal ileum. A dedicated D23 production line with 1,400 square meters of floor space and designed annual capacity of up to 50 million tablets has been completed and accepted. In April, the first oral peptide product, T25 (octreotide acetate tablets), received FDA IND approval for maintenance treatment of adult patients with acromegaly, following its earlier IND approval in China — a step forward for oral peptides from technology validation to product development. T20G (apixaban gastric retention sustained-release capsules) and T26 (itraconazole tablets) received FDA IND approvals in March 2025 and March 2026 respectively, while T24 (ramelteon dual-release tablets) has entered Phase I in China.

04 Another Multinational Pharma Name Added to the Partnership Roster

Partnering with multinational pharma companies isn't new for Triastek. Eli Lilly and Company, Merck Group, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Siemens are all on its collaboration list, with the BioNTech partnership reaching over $1.2 billion in potential value.

In July this year, Triastek completed a new strategic financing round with investors including Minjin Investment, Lingang Digital Technology, and Hangzhou Industrial Investment Group. The funds are earmarked primarily for building out its Shanghai International R&D and Manufacturing Center, advancing its oral peptide pipeline clinically, and expanding international partnerships. Oral peptides have been established as a new strategic priority. As the Shanghai center gradually comes online, the company's oral peptide push is shifting from platform building to industrialization capability development.

Dr. Senping Cheng, Triastek's founder and CEO, stated: "We are honored to enter into this strategic collaboration with Johnson & Johnson and to receive JJDC's equity investment, which fully reflects our shared vision of advancing oral drug development. We look forward to accelerating the development of next-generation innovative oral therapeutics through our partnership, bringing more clinically valuable treatment options to patients."

Content compiled from Triastek's official WeChat account, EPharm Manager, PharmaTimes, and other public sources