LianBio Raises $310 Million to Accelerate New Treatments for Asian Markets
Shanghai-based LianBio raised $310 million in an oversubscribed crossover financing round less than two months after the company launched.
LianBio roared out of the gate in August with multiple deals in hand to develop therapies for the Asian market. The company, which is partnered with Perceptive Advisors, one of its financers, harnesses the power of an “innovation mining platform that matches scientific opportunity to local medical need and provides select partners with access to the large and dynamic healthcare ecosystem in Asia, serving as an extension of their global development strategy in China.”
Funds from the oversubscribed crossover financing round will be used to advance the company’s innovation mining platform and diversified portfolio of product candidates, including late-stage cardiorenal and oncology assets. The company has access to a wide range of assets through multiple partnerships established at the time of its launch. LianBio forged a number of relationships with companies like BridgeBio Pharma, MyoKardia, and BridgeBio Pharma affiliate companies Navire Pharma and QED Therapeutics.
When it launched, LianBio pointed to two primary assets, one in oncology and one aimed at cardiorenal issues. The company’s lead cardiorenal asset is mavacamten, a small molecule therapeutic that reversibly binds to myosin to directly target the excess contractility and impaired relaxation underlying hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Mavacamten has been in development by MyoKardia, which is planning to seek regulatory approval in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2021 based on positive Phase III results announced in August. LianBio’s primary oncology asset is infigratinib, a first-in-class, selective fibroblast growth factor receptor inhibitor from QED Therapeutics, which is currently in Phase III development for cholangiocarcinoma and urothelial carcinoma among other FGFR-driven diseases. LianBio is pursuing the study of infigratinib in first-line cholangiocarcinoma in mainland China.
The financing round was co-led by U.S. investors RA Capital and Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners and Chinese investor CMG-SDIC Capital. Other investors in the round include BlackRock, Casdin Capital, Farallon, Logos Capital, Perceptive Advisors, Pfizer Inc., Sphera Healthcare, T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Tybourne Capital Management, Vida Ventures, Viking Global Investors and Wellington Management.
Konstantin Poukalov, managing director of Perceptive Advisors and executive chairman of LianBio, said the investment made into LianBio will lead to new, transformative medicines for patients in China and other Asian markets.
“Building on the success and momentum of the company’s recent launch, this financing provides additional support for LianBio’s efforts to contribute to China’s dynamic life sciences landscape by addressing significant unmet medical needs in the region,” Poukalov said in a statement.