A Chinese biotech helmed by an AstraZeneca veteran has secured $108 million in series B funds, which the company will use to advance its lead KRAS inhibitor into phase 3 studies.
D3 Bio saw previous investors like WuXi AppTec's Corporate Venture Fund, Temasek, HSG, MPCi and Medicxi return for the series B, along with new backers IDG Capital and SongQing Capital.
The WuXi- and Shanghai-based company said the funding will “primarily support” a planned phase 3 program for its lead asset elisrasib. The next-gen KRAS G12C inhibitor is being lined up as a potential monotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer and metastatic colorectal cancer, as well as in combination with Merck KGaA’s cancer drug Erbitux or with immune checkpoint inhibitors.
D3 arrived at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in Chicago in April armed with phase 1/2 data for elisrasib that the company said demonstrated “promising anti-tumor activity and favorable tolerability in patients with advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, who are resistant to first-generation KRAS G12C inhibitors.”
The planned phase 3 program for elisrasib will encompass both monotherapy and combination regimens for KRAS G12C-mutant cancers spread across the U.S., China and the EU, with the aim of securing the necessary data for “global regulatory submissions,” according to a Dec. 9 release.
A slice of the series B funds will also be used to “facilitate ongoing development of D3 Bio's comprehensive pipeline of targeted and immuno-oncology programs.” This clinical-stage portfolio includes an ERK 1/2 kinase inhibitor in phase 1 development for solid tumors with MAPK mutation as well as a HER2/CD47 bispecific antibody in phase 1 for HER2-positive solid tumors.
The biotech has three other solid tumor drugs in development, including a TIGIT/PVRIG bispecific.
“The completion of our series B financing demonstrates the strong confidence our investors place in our vision, scientific approach, business operations, and global development capabilities,” D3’s founder and CEO George Chen, M.D., said in the release.
“This funding enables us to advance our lead program into late-stage clinical trials and further expand our pipeline of innovative therapies designed to benefit patients globally,” the CEO added.
Chen spent two years as chief medical officer of Chinese biopharma BeiGene before taking up a position at AstraZeneca. During a seven-year stint at the British drugmaker, Chen headed up China R&D and served as senior vice president for global oncology R&D.
Chen then persuaded investors including Sequoia Capital China and Temasek to bankroll his plans for D3, which emerged in 2020 with a hefty $200 million from a syndicate of heavy hitters.
At the time, the exact nature of Chen’s plans for D3 remained unclear, with the company’s strategy focused on identifying areas of unmet need in immunology and oncology and using existing clinical data to find precision medicine targets and delivery methods with the potential to improve outcomes.
D3’s ambition was to enforce a departure from a laboratory-driven approach to R&D. Instead, the company’s philosophy to drug discovery starts with an understanding of the biomarkers of interest and the improvements over existing treatments it will need to achieve. Once the biotech takes drugs into the clinic, the concept has been to feed data from the studies back into its discovery efforts.
Last year, the company wrapped up a $62 million series A+ round, which it used to push ahead with a phase 2 study of elisrasib.