Roche Accelerator

By 2030, China aims to be the leading healthcare market in the world and our aspiration is for Roche to become a leading healthcare company in China - delivering improved care to the world’s largest population.

For more than 90 years Roche has had a strong presence in China. We were the first multinational healthcare company to set up a fully owned R&D center in Shanghai with the aim to discover and develop more breakthrough medicines in China for Chinese patients - and patients all over the world. We believe China's scale, commitment and emerging innovation in healthcare presents a unique opportunity to contribute for Roche and our partners.

About Roche Accelerator

Roche Accelerator is the first in-house accelerator globally, representing Roche’s long-term commitment to Shanghai and China. Roche Accelerator strengthens the collaboration with local partners and plays a key part in the local innovation ecosystem.

Roche Accelerator is an initiative to build an innovation hub and contribute to the local innovation ecosystem in China. We aim to attract entrepreneurs in the areas of pharmaceuticals, diagnostics and personalised healthcare (PHC) including artificial intelligence (AI) and digital solutions.

Many good ideas in the early stages can often fail to materialise. We want to do our utmost on whatever is needed for our entrepreneurs to succeed.

Qiusong Tang

Head of Roche Accelerator

Brochure of Roche accelerator

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Embedded in the Roche R&D organization, the Accelerator catalyses and empowers entrepreneurs to bridge the gap between concept and proof-of-concept through Roche’s dedicated team, full-spectrum research and development (R&D) and commercial capabilities in China. We could provide seed funding, intensive coaching and guidance, and best-in-class in-house scientific avenues to discuss topics as detailed as assays, or with strategic breadth, like defining key milestones to de-risk the science. We do this together with our partners, where they can add value.

Located in the heart of Zhangjiang of Pudong, Shanghai, the building of Roche Accelerator will be completed by 2022. The 5,000-square-meter building will be home to state-of-the-art laboratories, offices, and collaboration spaces for entrepreneurs focusing on pharma, diagnostics, and personalised healthcare (PHC) including artificial intelligence (AI) and digital solutions.

Our offerings

Our focus

We focus on the following areas: pharma, diagnostics and personalised healthcare (PHC) including AI and digital solutions - a strategy that aims to fit the right treatment to each person in the best way possible. Being agnostic to the company stage, we are interested in discovery, translational and early development projects with a special focus on:

4.2-Accelerator-Our-focus-2 — Innovative approaches and technologies to address diseases with many unmet needs for diagnosis and treatment

4.3-Accelerator-Our-focus — Meaningful data at scale and insight generation, powered by AI/machine learning

4.4-Accelerator-Our-focus — Meaningful data at scale and insight generation, powered by AI/machine learning

Infrastructure: access to a state-of-the-art Roche R&D building completely redesigned and remodeled, providing more than 5,000 sqm. laboratory with equipment, office and collaboration spaces in the heart of Zhangjiang (estimated 2022)

Support: scientific and strategic mentorship from Roche business leaders, senior scientists, distinguished experts, investors as well as a community platform for portfolio companies to connect and collaborate

Funding: potential Roche seed funding available in the forms of equity investment, research funding or subsidies; priority access to our venture capital partners

Operations: Procurement and Logistics, Environment, Health and Safety, IT and network, and preferential benefits from Roche recommended vendors and potential tax incentives and government subsidies

Flexibility: a flexible program that can be tailored to the individual needs of each entrepreneur, depending on where you are in your journey

We invite you to join us and start something amazing!

Become a member

Join us

Have a look at our Roche Accelerator members. We hope that together we can build a better future with medical advances that make a real difference to people’s health.

Allorion Allorion focuses on next-generation small molecules with novel MOAs to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. They develop covalent binders and allosteric inhibitors against challenging targets / pockets, leveraging its proprietary synthetic lethality based screening platform.

BayOmics , founded in January 2022, is a R&D company focusing on innovative proteomics technology development and biomedical applications. The company owns a number of patented technologies that provide fast, robust, and standardized solutions for proteomic profiling, and multiple platforms in spatial, cell type, and clinical functional proteomic analyses. The company's vision is to integrate proteomics technologies into the pharmaceutical industrial chain to provide innovative solution for discovery of novel biomarkers and targeted drugs in the Greater Bay Area.

ETERN is an innovative precision oncology company focusing on developing novel technology targeting protein dynamics to drug "undruggable" targets, with its proprietary Protein Dynamic Structure Platform (DSP) and Dynamic Liquid-liquid Phase Separation (LLPS) Platform.

At HeliXon, we build next-generation AI solutions to protein-based therapeutics. We aim to develop AI tools that empower scientists to decipher protein function and interaction, interrogate large-scale genomic datasets for target identification, and design therapeutics such as antibodies and cell therapies.

Keen focuses on challenging targets / pathways to provide innovative cancer therapies, by specialising in the area of cancer metabolism including ferroptosis and macropinocytosis.

CytosinLab Therapeutics is an epigenetics-focused small molecule drug discovery and development company. Based on its profound epigenetics research and drug discovery experience, CytosinLab expects to make a breakthrough in the treatment of cancer, especially solid tumors, by developing new targets, mechanisms and clinical applications.

METiS Pharmaceuticals aims to drive best-in-class therapies in a wide range of disease areas by integrating drug discovery and delivery with AI, machine learning, and quantum simulation.

GYENNO SCIENCE is a world-leading medical technology company for CNS diseases, dedicated to creating value for patients, clinicians and industry, and developing innovative diagnosis and treatment technology solutions.

GenomiCare has explored valuable clinic insights, and working closely with PI to develop global research projects related to treatment more intelligently; enabling pharmaceutical and biotech companies in R&D and commercialization process with low risk and more effectively. By employing "reverse translational medicine” approach, GenomiCarebio aims to provide the best solution for Drug R&D with the multidimension real world data.

Degron Therapeutics aims to become a global leader in the discovery and development of a new class of targeted protein degradation therapeutics, small molecule molecular glue drugs. Degron has assembled a team of world-class executives and scientific leaders, bringing its scientific excellence to the identification and validation of novel drug targets, particularly those undruggable by conventional small molecule inhibitors, novel compound optimization, preclinical and clinical applications to meet unmet medical needs in all therapeutic areas.

XellSmart is dedicated to providing scalable and affordable stem cell therapeutics for a series of major, currently incurable diseases such as Parkinson's disease.

Migrasome Therapeutics is an innovative biotechnology company focusing on novel biologies of migrasomes. Migrasomes are novel organelles mediating communications between cells and play important roles under normal and disease conditions. Migrasome Therapeutics strives to leverage the unique features of migrasomes to develop novel therapeutics for multiple urgent unmet medical needs.

Our portfolio start-ups

Hillhouse Capital is a global private equity firm. It was founded by Lei Zhang in 2005 with US$20 million in seed capital from the Yale Endowment. Hillhouse has offices in Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Zhangjiang Group (formerly known as Shanghai Zhangjiang InnoPark Development Company) was established on July 28, 1992. The group shoulders the responsibility of developing the Zhangjiang Science City, attracting investment projects, cultivating new industries, providing services, and creating a favorable environment for innovation and start-ups. Zhangjiang Science City is located in the middle of Pudong New Area. With a planned area of 95 square kilometers, Zhangjiang will upgrade itself into a hub of national labs, universities, R&D institutes, and attract top-notch innovative companies and talents. At present, it gathers over 24,000 companies, 150 national and municipal R&D institutes, 58 regional headquarters of MNCs, and 20 universities and research institutes, attracting over 400,000 talents working here. Going forward, Zhangjiang will develop into a world-class science city of various research factors and with better public services and transportation, achieve a vibrant innovation and start-up ecosystem, offer different kinds of cultural activities, and create a beautiful ecological environment.

Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), established in 2002, has committed to building up Hong Kong as an international innovation and technology hub to propel success for local and global pioneers today and tomorrow. As of 2022, HKSTP has established a thriving I&T ecosystem that is home to three unicorns and Hong Kong’s leading R&D hub with over 12,000 research professionals and over 1,200 technology companies focused on healthtech, AI and robotics, fintech and smart city technologies.

Our partners

We invite you to submit non-confidential information through this application form. The information you provide will only be used to contact you regarding your application to become a Roche Accelerator member.

We accept applications on a rolling basis; short-listed candidates will be invited to present face-to-face to the Roche team.

Even if you believe your project is not yet mature and are hesitant to apply, we recommend that you get in contact with us. We may see the potential opportunity differently and can help advance your project. At the very least, we can help you prepare for the future.