Singlomics Completes CNY 300 Million Series B to Develop COVID-19 Antibodies and Other New Pipelines using High-throughput Single-cell Technology
Beijing China, February 2, 2022 — Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals, an innovative biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery and development of antibody drugs using single-cell sequencing technology platform, today announced the completion of close to CNY 300 million series B financing lead by LEGEND CAPITAL and MSA CAPITAL, and multiple co-investors including JIANYI CAPITAL, CASH CAPITAL, FOUNDER H FUND, RUIHUA CAPITAL and WITRUTH CAPITA. Existing shareholders - HUAGAI CAPITAL, GL VENTURES, BOHE ANGEL FUND, and the company’s management team have also invested further. This funding round will be used to develop COVID-19 neutralizing antibodies, while enhancing new pipelines.
Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals is an innovative drug company dedicated to research and development of antibody drugs using single-cell sequencing technology platform, focusing on infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases and cancers. DXP-593 and DXP-604, our two most advanced products, are neutralizing monoclonal antibodies screened from convalescent COVID-19 patients, using the state of the art high-throughput single-cell sequencing technology platform. They are currently in the clinical development phase, for treatment and prevention of COVID-19.
Quan Zhou, Managing Director of LEGEND CAPITAL, said: “We are very pleased to establish this collaboration with Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals. We have been bullish in pursing the application of single-cell sequencing technology in the research, clinical and pharmaceutical fields. Academician Xiaoliang Xie, a heavyweight in the single-cell genome field in China, quickly organized a team to develop broad-spectrum therapeutic antibodies during the COVID-19 outbreak, and has pioneered their deployment on a compassionate basis, making a significant contribution to the country’s anti-epidemic efforts. The company is also constantly expanding new pipelines for the future.”
“We are very optimistic about the development of Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals, a classic joint venture between scientists and entrepreneurs,” said Ms. Yu Zeng, Founder Partner of MSA CAPITAL, “Academician Xiaoliang Xie is one of the world’s founders of single-cell sequencing technology accumulated many outstanding achievements in this field. Dr. Qian Shi is an enterprise leader, with a long professional & technical background and rich experience in enterprise management. The team led by Dr. Xie and Dr. Shi is a golden league, and we have great hopes for our collaboration with them. Meanwhile, Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals has been focusing on the discovery of novel therapeutic antibodies derived from patient samples, using the single-cell sequencing technology, a radical departure from traditional antibody drug discovery processes. Their current DXP-604 COVID-19 neutralizing antibody is one of the best neutralizing antibody products in the world. We will spare no effort to support the development of Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals by leveraging MSA CAPITAL’s own advantages in our resources as well as our professional post-investment service capability.”
Tackling the COVID-19 Pandemic with Science
Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals was founded in June 2020. Co-founder Professor Xiaoliang Xie is an internationally renowned biophysical chemist, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was a former Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. Returning to China full-time in 2018 to contribute to research and education, he is now Lee Shau-kee Chair Professor of Peking University. Academician Xie has pioneered the development and medical application of single-cell genome sequencing technology over the past decade. Immediately after the outbreak of COVID-19, he organized an outstanding multidisciplinary team with members from universities and industries to tackle this critical challenge. His team successfully applied single-cell genomics to the screening of neutralizing antibodies from humans for the first time, and rapidly obtained highly active neutralizing antibodies which are expected to provide a distinctly efficacious treatment for COVID-19.
Dr. Yunlong Cao, Co-founder, graduated from Harvard University in 2019. He then joined the Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center of PEKING UNIVERSITY. His research work has been published in several papers in Cell and Nature. He is the scientific leader of the multidisciplinary team organized by Dr. Xiaoliang Xie for the research and development of highly active neutralizing antibodies against COVID-19, directing from experimental design to implementation. In 2021, he was selected as one of the “35 Innovators under 35” in China by MIT Technology Review.
Dr. Qian Shi, CEO of Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals, said: “In terms of the team created by Academician Xiaoliang XIE, it has its own aura. The team is jointly composed of academicians and entrepreneurs, and it is favored by investors with such a make-up. In terms of technology, the single-cell sequencing technology accelerates new drug development. The company’s COVID-19 antibody drugs are entering clinical Phase II, and Sinopharm Wuhan Institute of Biological Products has signed an agreement with us to conduct Phase III clinical trials. From a market perspective, DXP-604 has already been deployed on a compassionate basis in multiple regions during the epidemic in China, showing promising results. Therefore, from the points of view of team, technology, product and market, Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals has built a stable foundation with excellent and broad-ranging development prospects, likely to attain recognition by investment institutions.”
Dr. Qian Shi joined Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals as CEO in August 2021. He has twenty years of research experience in oncology, with a deep understanding of the current situation and needs of scientific research, pharmaceutical industry and clinical practice. He also brings rich leadership experience in managing cross-regional and cross-cultural teams. Prior to joining Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals, he was the General Manager and Head of Scientific Research of the Chinese arm of Apollomics Inc. Under his leadership, his team accomplished the submission of two INDs for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (a Phase III study) and solid tumors (a Phase I study), respectively, enabling the company to enter clinical stage. Before his appointment at Apollomics, he worked for more than seven years at Crown Bioscience Inc., as the General Manager of Taicang branch and Vice President of Oncology, directing the Department of In vitro & In vivo Tumor Pharmacology.
At present, there are 26 team members at Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals. The core scientists in the research team are all graduates of prestigious universities including Harvard, PEKING UNIVERSITY and Fudan University, and have accumulated decades of experience in single-cell genomics, transcriptomics, methylomics, immunology and oncology.
Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals has independently built a single-cell high-throughput drug screening and development platform with unique features. The advantages of this technology include taking immune cells with well-defined biological functions as research & development objects and adopting a reverse discovery process with the capacity of higher-volume information gathering and higher-throughput measurements than conventional antibody discovery technologies, leading to superb precision. This technology can greatly shorten the time dedicated for antibody discovery and also reduce the failure rate of ensuing development.
At present, there are three categories in Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals’ R&D pipelines. The first category includes several neutralizing antibodies against COVID-19, with DXP-593 and DXP-604 being the two main products. Both were discovered by screening and characterizing viral antigen-specific B cells collected from 60+ convalescent COVID-19 patients, using high-throughput single-cell transcriptome and VDJ sequencing technologies. The company will focus on developing DXP-604, since we found the latest COVID variants, including the Delta strain emerging from India and the recent Omicron strain, can escape DXP-593’s neutralizing activities; on the contrary, DXP-604 has strong anti-Delta and anti-Omicron efficacy. In vitro studies also showed that such a single monoclonal antibody is effective of neutralizing COVID-19 variants with a very broad range of mutations. Hence, we will now focus on developing DXP-604. The DXP-604 product is currently in clinical Phase II in China, in conjunction with Sinopharm Wuhan Institute of Biological Products. Phase III clinical development will be conducted overseas in cooperation with Sinopharm Wuhan. “Because there are more outbreaks overseas where much higher number of patients allow fast enrollment into clinical trials than in China. Phase III trials will be conducted overseas in order to bring the product into clinical use much more quickly.” Dr. Qian Shi said.
“Domestically, deployment for compassionate use and clinical development are being conducted simultaneously. In addition to clinical Phase II, we have deployed for compassionate use to over 300 patients in cities like Beijing, Tianjin, Xi’an and Shaoxing. When there is an outbreak, we surmount all hurdles to allow the drug to enter local hospitals as soon as possible and to help patients as well as doctors. This is our greatest honor as a drug developer,” said Dr. Qian Shi.
In addition to its COVID-19 products, Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals has other product pipelines in early development, including drugs to treat chronic hepatitis B infections and cancers.
Affordable Drugs for China Via a Two-pronged Approach of Independent Research & Development and Licensing-in
The main advantage of single-cell sequencing technology in drug development is its high speed in discovering the lead drug molecules, which can be accelerated into the clinical stages, greatly reducing costs, time and manpower. On the other hand, single-cell sequencing can be used not only in obtaining and screening antibody molecules, but also in a wide range of application scenarios. In the pharmaceutical industry, single-cell technology enables drug target screening, pharmacokinetic analysis, pharmacodynamic evaluation, efficacy measurement etc. in high-throughput fashions. It can greatly shorten the drug discovery durations, reduce the development costs and optimize the management of drug development pipelines. Hence, the application of single-cell sequencing technology to the entire biopharmaceutical industry has great future potential. However, it is still in the early experimental stage at the current time, with application being relatively narrow.
Dr. Qian Shi said: “This is mainly due to the high cost of single-cell sequencing technology and the pressing need for technical expertise and subsequent data analysis, which limit broader application of this technology. Currently, only a few companies and research institutions have mastered single-cell sequencing technology. We hope to see more application scenarios and greater use of this technology in future. In the current situation, Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals aims to work closely with Sinopharm Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, and smoothly complete the Phase III clinical validation of DXP-604, so achieving true commercialization. Looking into the future, Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals will continue to reinforce its product pipelines to treat infectious diseases and cancer, through strengthening in-house R&D capabilities for novel antibody drugs and licensing-in innovative products from partners globally. Via such a two-pronged approach side by side, we are aiming to achieve our vision of “Using the single-cell sequencing technology platform to continuously promote innovative drug research for various indications, including infectious diseases and cancer, and Developing good drugs that are affordable for the people of China”.
About LEGEND CAPITAL
LEGEND CAPITAL, an independent professional investment subsidiary of Legend Holdings, was founded in April 2001. Its core business is venture capital investment in start-up companies, and also investment in companies at the fast growing and expansion phase. Its USD and CNY funds under management have exceeded the equivalent of CNY 60 billion, with an investment focus on innovations and growth opportunities in China. As of 2021, LEGEND CAPITAL has invested in more than 500 companies, of which more than 90 have successfully achieved IPO/listed in China or overseas. Among them, more than 60 enterprises have merged into other businesses through successful acquisition processes.
About MSA CAPITAL
MSA CAPITAL is a China-based equity investment institution with a global perspective, focusing on early and growth stage investments in key sectors such as health care, cutting-edge technology, the Internet and consumer products. It is headquartered in Beijing, with resident teams in the United States, the Middle East and Africa. With a broad global perspective and deep international market insights, the team is able to explore good investment opportunities while helping the enterprises into which it has invested rapidly expand in overseas markets using local resources. Currently, MSA CAPITAL manages more than USD 2 billion. Investment cases include BGI Genomics (SZ: 300676), Yidu Cloud (2158.HK), NIO (NYSE: NIO), Kanzhun Limited (NASDAQ: BZ), Meituan Dianping (3690.HK), Uber (NYSE: UBER), Nubank (NYSE: NU), ClouDr, Silexon, Pyrotech Therapeutics, Axbio, Axter Therapeutics, MLOBIO, DynastyGene, PAQ Therapeutics, Kidneytec, Amador Bioscience, INFI BRAIN TECH, Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals, Black Sesame Technologies, Biren Technology, SpeedBot Robotics, Fabu.AI, XForcePlus, Oriental Space Technology, Cider, T11 Food Market and UNISKIN, etc.
About Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals
Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. was founded in June 2020. It has established a state of the art single-cell high-throughput drug screening and development platform at its early stage. As a novel drug development strategy, this technology has been used to achieve rapid discovery and development of antibody drugs. The advantages of this technology include taking immune cells with well-defined biological functions as research & development objects and adopting a reverse discovery process with the capacity of higher-volume information gathering and higher-throughput measurements than conventional antibody discovery technologies, leading to superb precision. This technology can greatly shorten the time dedicated for antibody discovery and also reduce the failure rate of ensuing development.
Professor Xiaoliang Xie, the Leading Founder, is an internationally renowned biophysical chemist, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has pioneered the development and medical application of single-cell genome sequencing technology over the past decade. Dr. Qian Shi, CEO, has twenty years research experience in the oncology field, and a deep understanding of the current situation and needs of scientific research, pharmaceutical industry and clinical practice. He also brings rich leadership experience in managing cross-regional and cross-cultural teams. Under the strong leadership of both scientist and entrepreneur, sit our core scientific team members, all graduates of respected universities such as Harvard, PEKING UNIVERSITY and Fudan University, who bring decades of experience in fields such as single-cell genomics, transcriptomics, methylomics and immunology.
Singlomics Biopharmaceuticals has completed series B round financing from investors in the medical and health field in China. In addition to pursuing Phase III clinical development of COVID-19 antibody drugs, the company is further reinforcing its product pipelines to treat infectious diseases and cancer, through strengthening in-house R&D capabilities for novel antibody drugs and licensing-in innovative products from partners globally. Via such a two-pronged approach side by side, the company is aiming to achieve its vision of “Using the single-cell sequencing technology platform to continuously promote innovative drug research for various indications, including infectious diseases and cancer, and developing good drugs that are affordable for the people of China.
Contact Information:
Liping Zhang
Sr. Director, Business Development and Operations
Phone: (86) 10 80765087
Email: liping_zhang@singlomics.com
Sr. Director, Business Development and Operations
Phone: (86) 10 80765087
Email: liping_zhang@singlomics.com
