10 July 2020 - - Chinese biopharmaceutical company Harbour BioMed has completed its Series C financing of USD 102.8m to accelerate development of its growing portfolio of next generation biologics targeting cancer, immunologic diseases, and COVID-19, the company said.

The financing was led by new investors, Hudson Bay Capital, followed by OrbiMed, Country Garden VC, GTJA Investment Group, Octagon Capital, and Sage Partners, with additional investment from existing investor Greater Bay Area Investment Fund.

The round follows a USD 75m series B+ financing the company completed in March 2020.

With a patient-centric approach to address unmet medical needs across the world, HBM currently has five products in clinical development.

Key programs include HBM9161 (Batoclimab), a first-in-class fully human anti-FcRn mAb, that significantly reduces pathogenic IgG, with potential to become a portfolio-in-a-product for a variety of autoimmune indications.

HBM has received IND approval from China's National Medical Products Administration and is conducting clinical trials in myasthenia gravis, neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, immune thrombocytopenia and Graves' ophthalmopathy.

HBM9036 (Tanfanercept) is a novel TNF receptor-1 fragment to treat dry eye disease by inhibiting TNFα.

Phase 2 clinical trials with the drug in the US and China have shown promising signals of both clinical efficacy and safety in treating moderate-to-severe dry eye disease. Preparations for the Phase 3 registration trial in China are currently underway.

HBM4003 is a next-generation anti-CTLA4 mAb in Phase 1 clinical studies in Australia for the treatment of advanced solid tumors.

The molecule is the first of several fully human mAbs in development at HBM based on the company's heavy chain only technology. HBM4003 has shown extremely promising anti-tumor activity and a favorable safety profile in preclinical studies, suggesting it has potential in both mono- as well as combination therapy with other immuno-oncology drugs.

The US FDA recently cleared HBM's IND to initiate US clinical trials; the NMPA has accepted an IND application for HBM4003 to begin clinical trials in China.

HBM is also building a robust COVID-19 pipeline. Along with Utrecht University and Erasmus Medical Center, HBM recently announced a research collaboration with AbbVie for a monoclonal antibody termed 47D11 for therapeutic/prophylactic use against SARS-CoV2.

This fully human antibody, designed to facilitate its development and minimize immune-related side effects, targets a conserved region of the virus' spike protein, and has been shown in studies published in Nature Communications to block infection by the SARS-CoV-2 (commonly known as COVID-19) and SARS-CoV.

This cross-neutralising feature of the antibody may have potential in mitigating diseases caused by future-emerging related coronaviruses. This and other mAbs in HBM's COVID-19 pipeline are also being currently tested for diagnostic purposes.

In addition, the company also has an ongoing collaboration with Mt. Sinai Health System (New York) for discovering antibodies against SARS-CoV2 using its proprietary H2L2 Harbour Mice platform.
HBM's pipeline overview can be found here.