Brii Biosciences Closes US$155 Million Series C Financing
Brii Biosciences (Brii Bio), a multi-national company developing innovative therapies for diseases with significant unmet medical needs and large public health burden, today announced completion of a Series C financing of US$155 million.
Brii Biosciences (“Brii Bio”), a multi-national company developing innovative therapies for diseases with significant unmet medical needs and large public health burden, today announced completion of a Series C financing of US$155 million. The financing, participated by existing and new investors, was led by Invesco Developing Markets Fund, with significant additional funding provided by GIC and another global leading investment management organization, followed by Lake Bleu Capital and an Asia-based leading investment organization, as well as three current investors.
Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance Brii Bio’s broad infectious diseases pipeline as well as the company’s CNS program.
“Since our founding in 2018, Brii Bio has made tremendous progress toward our mission to accelerate the development and delivery of breakthrough medicines through partnerships and our own insight in highly differentiated medicine discovery,” said Zhi Hong, Ph.D., CEO of Brii Bio. “As we work to address some of the world’s biggest public health issues and disease burdens, we are pleased and honored to have the support of investors who share our mission to discover, develop and deliver innovative treatments for patients not only in China, but throughout the world.”
Brii Bio is currently conducting clinical studies in multiple infectious diseases, and is preparing to enter clinical-stage research in diseases of the central nervous system. The company’s programs include:
- HBV: Initiation of a phase 2 study of BRII-835 (VIR-2218) in combination with BRII-179 (VBI-2601) in patients who are chronically infected with HBV is planned for March 2021, and will be the subject of a separate announcement.
- COVID-19 antibody therapies: BRII-196 and BRII-198, non-competing SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies are part of the Phase 2/3 studies under ACTIV-2 master protocols, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
- Multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections: BRII-636 (OMNIvanceTM), BRII-672 (ORAvanceTM) and BRII-693 (QPX-9003) are potent antibiotics against WHO-designated critical pathogens for the treatment of carbapenemase producing Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii.
- New HIV treatment options - Once Weekly Single Tablet Regimen (QW STR): phase 1 clinical study for BRII-778 has started and a U.S IND for BRII-732 was submitted in March. The company will investigate the potential of prolonged dosing interval for treatment of people who live with HIV.
- Novel treatment for central nervous system (CNS) disease: The phase 1 clinical trials for BRII-296 will begin shortly under a U.S. IND.
About Brii Biosciences
Brii Biosciences (Brii Bio) is a multi-national company committed to serving patients' needs and improving public health by accelerating the development and delivery of breakthrough medicines through partnerships, best-in-class research and development, and the disruptive application of digital and data insight. With operations in the People's Republic of China and the United States, Brii Bio is poised to serve as a bridge to carry transformative medicines to patients, help create significant growth for our partners and establish an innovation engine to help improve the public health and wellbeing of patients around the world. Brii Bio is developing treatments for illnesses with significant public health burdens, including infectious diseases, liver diseases, and CNS diseases. For more information, visit www.briibio.com.
About Invesco Developing Markets Fund
Invesco Developing Markets Fund has approximately US$50 billion asset under management. The fund is recognized as one of the market leaders in emerging market equities and has successful track record of investing since 1996. We are long-term investors with disciplined approach to identify extraordinary companies, which deliver strong long-term performance and have innovative products or unique assets that capture demands domestically and/or outside their home economy.
About GIC
GIC is a leading global investment firm established in 1981 to manage Singapore’s foreign reserves. As a disciplined long-term value investor, GIC is uniquely positioned for investments across a wide range of asset classes, including equities, fixed income, private equity, real estate and infrastructure. Headquartered in Singapore, GIC has investments in over 40 countries and employs over 1,700 people across 10 offices in key financial cities worldwide. For more information on GIC, please visit https://www.gic.com.sg/ or LinkedIn.
About Lake Bleu Capital
Based in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Lake Bleu Capital (www.lakebleu-cap.com) is a multi-billion investment platform focused on healthcare space. Lake Bleu Capital’s USD public equity fund is one of the largest healthcare specialist funds in Asia. Thanks to its outstanding performance since inception, the fund has been awarded as the sole winner of the “5 Year Award: Over 500m category” by AsiaHedge in 2020 and the “Best Asia ex-Japan Fund” by industry authorities multiple times in recent years. Lake Bleu Capital is also active in mid-to late-stage private equity investment in China’s healthcare sector. It has successfully invested in over 40 high-quality private companies and provided the invested companies with strategic value- add services while growing with the companies in the long run.
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