On May 6, 2021 Hope Medicine reported the completion of a Series B financing US$56 million (Press release, Hope Medicine, MAY 6, 2021, View Source [SID1234632778]). This round of financing was jointly led by Qiming Venture Partners and Grand Flight Investment. HighLight Capital (HLC) co-invested with Sinovation Ventures. The Series A investor，Trust Bridge Partners，continued to subscribe. HaoYue Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor for this round of financing.

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HopeMed is a global science-driven innovative biopharmaceutical company with R&D bases and offices in Nanjing, Shanghai, and Beijing, China. The company was founded by Professor Rui-Ping Xiao, the dean of the College of Future Technology of Peking University, and an associate editor of New England Journal of Medicine. HopeMed has always followed the founding philosophy of In China, For Global, and has built an international multi-disciplinary team dedicated to global unmet medical needs with first-in-class medicines.

HopeMed focuses on the three major disease areas of women’s health, endocrine, and cardiovascular diseases, and aims at the unmet medical needs, through an independent R&D as well as license-in models, to further establish and enrich our research and development pipelines.

Previously, HopeMed has signed a world-wide exclusive license agreement with Bayer AG on the development and commercialization of a human antibody (HMI-115) targeting the prolactin (PRL) receptor for the treatment of male and female pattern hair loss, endometriosis and other chronic diseases with dysregulated PRL signaling. Under the terms of the license agreement, Hope Medicine will develop and globally commercialize the novel PRL receptor antibody based on intellectual property from Bayer. At present, HMI-115 has completed phase I clinical trials in the European Union, with positive safety results. The global multi-center phase II clinical trials for androgenic alopecia and endometriosis will soon be launched.

‘We have built a world-class professional team and strong global intellectual property rights to develop the best pharmaceuticals for the global market. China’s innovative pharmaceutical research and development have now entered an exciting new era of ‘dare to do, can do, and must do’. The diseases in women health, endocrinology, and cardiovascular fields are our primary battlefields. We will not forget our original purpose and strive for first-in-class medicines with disruptive innovation to benefit patients worldwide. Here we would like to express our sincere thanks to our new and old investors for their precious recognition and trust in HopeMed. This round of financing will provide strong support for the company’s upcoming MRCT international phase II clinical studies and commercial product development.’ Said Rui-Ping Xiao, Founder, and CEO of HopeMed.

Amy Tang, a venture partner with Qiming Venture Partners, said, "China’s innovative drug R&D sector is maturing. As a science-driven innovative drug R&D company, Hope Medicine has formed solid cooperations with world-class scientific research and development platform, such as IMM. The company develops first-in-class drugs to target unmet clinical needs and push forward with this goal. We are honored to cooperate with the visionary company, which is also effective at execution. Qiming hopes to explore the huge R&D potential of Hope Medicine and help their pipeline to go to market as soon as possible, to benefit the patients."

Mr. Jun Yang, Managing Partner of Grand Flight Investment said that they are very optimistic about the development of China’s biomedical industry and are convinced that China’s domestic grown innovative pharmaceutical companies can achieve more First-in-Class innovations. The HopeMed team led by Professor Xiao has a global vision and experience and is committed to the research and development of First-in-Class innovative medicines based on a deep understanding of translational medicine. HopeMed’s HMI-115 antibody has shown very significant effects in the natural NHP model, and human clinical trials have also shown positive safety results. Grand Flight is very optimistic about its follow-up clinical advancement and the expansion of more indications. HopeMed’s innovative pipelines in other disease fields also enrich the company’s future product layout.

‘After ten years of accumulation, the research and development of innovative pharmaceuticals in China has entered the spring of rapid development. We are very excited about the development of China’s medical and healthcare industry in recent years and its long-term prospects, and we are willing to accompany the growth of truly original pharmaceutical companies. HopeMed is a First-in-Class pharmaceutical research and development practice based in China and aiming at the world. Trust Bridge Partners is honored to be the founding investor and partner of HopeMed. This investment is in line with our vision to develop and provide international standard medical products for the Chinese and global markets.’ Said Mr. Feng Ge, the Managing Partner of Trust Bridge Partners.

Mr. Richard Yang, Partner of Sinovation Ventures commented that HopeMed is founded on the remarkable achievements in advanced translational medicine accumulating years of domain know-how led by Professor Xiao. The company develops competitive pipelines in multiple therapeutic areas with the world’s leading research and experiment platforms. Sinovation Ventures is honored to work with Professor Xiao’s team, and is highly confident that HopeMed will create great commercial value and social impact.

Mr. Liu Hao, Founder and CEO of HaoYue Capital, said that ‘we are honored to assist HopeMed in completing this round of financing. HopeMed has a world-class R&D team, including basic research, clinical translation, and CMC manufacturing. HopeMed always focuses on unmet clinical needs and refuses to follow others. HaoYue Capital is also committed to serving the best R&D team and the most innovative biopharmaceutical company in the world. We believe that HopeMed can provide patients with products with true clinical value.’

On May 6, 2021 Cue Biopharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: CUE), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engineering a novel class of injectable biologics designed to selectively engage and modulate targeted T cells directly within the patient’s body, reported it will give a poster presentation at the New York Academy of Sciences 2021 Frontiers in Cancer Immunotherapy meeting, which is being held virtually from May 12-14, 2021 (Press release, Cue Biopharma, MAY 6, 2021, View Source [SID1234608281]). The presentation will highlight clinical and preclinical data supporting the mechanism of action (MOA) for the Immuno-STAT (Selective Targeting and Alteration of T cells) platform, its expanding pipeline, and platform derivatives Neo-STAT and RDI-STAT (Re-Directed Immuno-STATs) to enhance anti-tumor immune responses.

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Presentation details:
Title: Immuno-STAT (Selective Targeting and Alteration of T cells) Platform: Targeting Tumor Heterogeneity and Tumor Escape Mechanisms
Presenter: Steve Quayle, Ph.D., Vice President, Translational Pharmacology, Cue Biopharma
Session: Virtual Poster Session 1
Date and Time: May 12, 2021 at 1:42 p.m. EDT

The poster will be available in the Investor & Media section of the Company’s website under Scientific Publications and Presentations, following the presentation at the New York Academy of Sciences 2021 Frontiers in Cancer Immunotherapy meeting.

Dr. Quayle will discuss how the Immuno-STAT platform and biologics enable selective engagement of tumor-specific T cell repertoires against tumors. He will showcase lead drug candidate, CUE-101, derived from the interleukin 2 (IL-2)-based CUE-100 series of Immuno-STATs that are designed for selective delivery of IL-2 to tumor-specific T cells. CUE-101 has shown favorable signs of tolerability, dose-dependent pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) activity, and anti-tumor activity in an ongoing Phase 1 monotherapy clinical trial for heavily pretreated patients with HPV+ head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. The presentation will also feature the Company’s second drug candidate, CUE-102, which targets the Wilms tumor (WT1) protein and is expected to reach the clinic in 2022, as well as next-generation platforms, Neo-STAT and RDI-STAT, engineered to address tumor heterogeneity and circumvent tumor escape mechanisms, respectively.

About New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) Frontiers in Cancer Immunotherapy Meeting
NYAS 2021 Frontiers in Cancer Immunotherapy meeting will convene experts in tumor immunology, cancer genetics and computational biology to discuss innovative methods to analyze both the tumor and the host immune system and highlight the links between tumor genotype, immune phenotype and patient response. Key themes under discussion will include tumor evolution, neoantigens, novel therapeutic targets, and mechanisms driving the emergence of resistance to current therapy.

On May 6, 2021, Coeptis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Coeptis"), our wholly-owned subsidiary, reported that initial payments under two agreements described below, making those agreement definitive agreements (Filing, 8-K, Vinings Holdings, MAY 6, 2021, View Source [SID1234583919]). The two definitive option purchase agreements are with VyGen-Bio, Inc. ("Vy-Gen"), pursuant to which Coeptis has the exclusive option to acquire co-development rights with respect to two Vy-Gen product candidates. Coeptis paid a total of $750,000 to acquire the two exclusive options.

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The first option purchase agreement relates to Vy-Gen’s diagnostic product candidate CD38-SNP-DIAG, which is an early stage development platform technology targeted for a novel use of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping for determining optimal treatment decisions in B cell malignancies. Coeptis paid $250,000 to secure this exclusive option, and the option is exercisable at any time until December 31, 2021, with the option exercise payment being an additional $1,250,000-$1,750,000 depending on the timing of the exercise. Details of the intended co-development arrangement are summarized in the option agreement attached at Exhibit 4.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K, and will be further developed when and if the long-form definitive co-development agreement is negotiated and finalized.

The second option purchase agreement relates to a product candidate based on VyGen’s early stage of development platform technology referred to as Gene-Edited Antibody Resistant (GEAR), which is targeted to potentially support numerous cell-therapy products with potential for co-administration with targeted monoclonal antibodies. The product candidate that is subject to the option is Vy-Gen’s CD38-GEAR-NK(Auto), which is a product candidate being developed to protect CD38+NK cells from destruction by CD38-mAbs. Coeptis paid $500,000 to secure this exclusive option, and the option is exercisable at any time until December 31, 2021, with the option exercise payment being an additional $3,000,000-$4,000,000 depending on the timing of the exercise. Details of the intended co-development arrangement are summarized in the option agreement attached at Exhibit 4.2 to this Current Report on Form 8-K, and will be further developed when and if the long-form definitive co-development agreement is negotiated and finalized. Vy-Gen has an option, after August 31, 2021 but before a formal exercise of the option by Coeptis, to buy-out this option for a one-time payment of $1,000,000. This option purchased agreement also grants to Coeptis the right to acquire an additional to-be-identified product candidate in the GEAR space for $3,500,000, provide that the initial option under this agreement is timely exercised.

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BeiGene has filed a 10-Q – Quarterly report [Sections 13 or 15(d)] with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission .

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