Affinity, a biopharmaceutical company focusing on developing anti-cancer drugs, gained capital favor for its tumor microenvironment activated platform and opportunities it may bring to oncology treatment.
Biopharmaceutical company Affinity(Chinese: 亲合力) recently announced its Series A+ financing round backed by Hongfu Investment(Chinese: 鸿富资产) and China Industrial Asset Management(Chinese: 兴业国信资管). Combined with its Series A financing round led by SDIC Venture Capital(Chinese: 国投创业) in September 2021, the two rounds of financing totaled hundreds of millions of CNY.
This round of funding will be used to advance clinical researchon drugs with tumor microenvironment specific activation, and to accelerate the R&D of the company's technology platform and early-stage pipelines, so as to satisfy large unmet clinical needs in oncology treatment.
Based on its tumor microenvironment specific activated platform, the company is expected to upgrade various anti-tumor drugs. Affinity has built product pipelines covering both small and large molecule drugs. The company said the antibodies it modified could be called 'super antibodies', featuring toxicity reduction and potentiation.
Affinity’s small molecule conjugate (SMDC) drug, Legubicin, has started the registrational clinical trial. Traditional chemotherapy as monotherapy, usually administered at doses close to the maximum tolerated dose, has strong and cumulative side effects, thus often leading to reluctance or withdrawal from chemotherapy. While Legubicin can achieve 'non-toxic chemotherapy'. That means it can not only inhibit and kill tumors but allow long-term combination therapy with immunotherapy. In this way, the drug can suppress tumors in the long term without affecting patients' quality of life.
Affinity adopts a business model of collaborative development and has enlisted cooperation from several pharmaceutical companies. A novel macromolecular drug developed by it and I-Mab Biopharma(Chinese: 天境生物) has entered the preclinical phase.
Competitors of Affinity include Junshi Biosciences(Chinese: 君实生物, 01877HK), Harbour BioMed(Chinese: 和铂医药,02142HK) and ImmuneOnco(Chinese:宜明昂科).