Guo-Liang Yu has big plans mapped out for Apollomics in 2019: Move the biotech’s headquarters from Hangzhou, China to Foster City, CA; scout new assets to add to its pipeline, currently led by c-Met/PD-1 combo; and build up the team to run a trans-Pacific operation. With support from a well-heeled Chinese backer, he now has $100 million to bankroll all that.
OrbiMed Asia, where Yu is a partner, got the company started in 2016 with a modest $9.75 million Series A, back when it was named CBT Pharmaceuticals.
Like a number of players in the increasingly crowded checkpoint field, Apollomics is banking on a combination approach to immuno-oncology with partners including Beijing Pearl Biotechnology, Zhejiang Bossan Pharmaceutical, Genor Biopharma and Chia Tai TianQing.
The new cash will fund, and likely add to, the more than 10 ongoing clinical trials for these combos, which will be helped by an R&D facility and manufacturing capabilities built in Hangzhou in the past year.
Kexiang Zhou, managing director of CMBI, is joining the board.
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