China-based biotechnology company InxMed has closed an extended Series B financing round at $15m, funded by venture capital firm Hyfinity Investments.
The current, Series B+ round follows an earlier $50m Series B financing round, led by US-based investment company CS Capital, which closed in March this year.
The earlier round has also seen participation from AIHC Fund, Growth Fund and Hosencare Fund, alongside existing investor Ennovation Venture.
InxMed is a clinical-stage biotechnology company engaged in developing medicines that target stroma microenvironment and drug resistance for hard-to-treat solid tumours.
The company intends to use the proceeds from the funding to ramp up the ongoing clinical trials of its lead candidate IN10018 in multiple cancer types in the US and China.
Hyfinity Investments managing partner Xin He said: “InxMed’s vision and pipeline strategy aligns with the purpose of our fund.
“In the past three years, InxMed has proven its value and potential through its capability of global innovation, strong execution, highly synergistic pipeline and encouraging clinical efficacy of IN10018.
“We think InxMed is well-positioned to become the first-tier China-based biotechnology innovator with a global impact and we are pleased to partner with InxMed and provide our unreserved support all along.”
IN10018 is a highly-selective adenosine triphosphate (ATP) competitive FAK inhibitor, whose exclusive global development and commercial operation rights are held by InxMed.
InxMed has conducted extensive exploratory research on IN10018 at Nanjing Translational Medicine Centre and FAK targets and has published the results.
In the early clinical data, IN10018 showed safety and efficacy in multiple tumour types, and also showed effectiveness in combination therapies.
The drug work against the tumour-associated fibrosis barrier, improve local immunity and can be used in different therapeutic modalities including immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy, said InxMed.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted fast track designation, and China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) breakthrough designation for IN10018 to treat platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.
Furthermore, InxMed is planning to begin new clinical trials in the second half of this year, advance more stroma targeting pipelines into clinics in the US and China, and strengthen its R&D capabilities in Nanjing.
InxMed founder and chief executive officer Zaiqi Wang said: “InxMed is focused on the development of innovative treatments to address the true global unmet medical needs.
“Our strategy is targeting the ecosystem fostered by tumour cells including tumour microenvironment to develop effective therapeutic regimens to combat or even cure cancer.
“We have built robust pipelines with different, yet complementary Mechanism of Actions, and promising preliminary efficacy data.
“Building partnership is also our important strategy to maximise the value of our assets, and we are actively exploring global partnership opportunities to accelerate more value inflections of IN10018 and other programs.”
