Led by Tianhe Life Sciences Venture Fund, round yields nearly $13 million for new development.

Clover Biopharmaceuticals, a Chinese biotech pursuing the development of novel and transformative therapeutics announced the completion of approximately $9.5 million (RMB 62.8 million) in Series A financing. According to Clover, combined with other nondilutive sources of funding, the fresh financing brings total cash proceeds to about $12.7 million (RMB 84.3 million) secured by the company in 2017.

Led by Tianhe Life Sciences Venture Fund, the Series A round will support the continued development of Clover’s pipeline of biological candidates including two compounds expected to enter clinical trials in humans in 2018. A Phase I oncology trial for candidate SCB-313, a novel TRAIL-Trimer fusion protein is expected to start in Australia early next year. The other candidate, SCB-808, is a proposed biosimilar of Enbrel (etanercept) that is being developed in a prefilled syringe delivery form.

Joshua Liang, Chief Strategy Officer and Board Director of Clover remarked: “We are pleased to complete these financings, as we transform into a global clinical-stage biotechnology company with multiple products in clinical development.” As one of the few biotechnology companies based in China with both an innovative drug development platform and in-house cGMP biomanufacturing capabilities, Liang noted that “investors have recognized the potential of our company.”

Clover Biopharmaceuticals drug development targets oncology and autoimmune disease. The company’s proprietary Trimer-Tag© technology platform supports the production of covalently-trimerized fusion proteins. A large majority of disease targets, explained Clover, are trimerization-dependent; including the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily as well as enveloped RNA virus antigens responsible for accessing host cells.

Clover is using its technology to create trimerized fusion proteins that effectively target previously undruggable pathways. “As a research-based biotechnology company, our vision has always been to bring our innovative biologic therapies to the world,” said Clover Co-founder, Chairman and President Dr. Peng Liang. “With our proprietary … drug discovery platform, cGMP biomanufacturing capabilities and [a] passionate team of scientists … we look forward to using these proceeds to further accelerate the development of our robust pipeline and make strategic hires across all functional areas including clinical development, biomanufacturing and early stage R&D.”