Tumor Immunotherapy Drug Developer Leman Biotech financing 50 Million RMB
Summary
Since its establishment in 2021, Leman Biotech has raised a total of about 150 million RMB through angel financing and grants.The funds raised will be used for the IND application of the companys "ultra-low dose" metabolically enhanced CD19 CAR-T cell therapy drug and to accelerate the clinical development of metabolically enhanced cell therapy drugs targeting solid tumors.In recent years, although immunotherapy has brought revolutionary breakthroughs to the field of cancer treatment, low response rates have become a major issue limiting further development. Our approach targets terminally exhausted T cells, which directly contribute to tumor killing and have sustained therapeutic effects. However, we discovered that the immunosuppressive factor IL-10 can directly act on terminally exhausted T cells, promoting their proliferation and killing activity, thus overcoming a major challenge in cancer immunotherapy," explained Dr. Guo Yugang, co-founder of Leman Biotech.Specifically, persistent antigen stimulation and the tumor immunosuppressive microenvironment are primary causes of T cell exhaustion. Additionally, using IL-10-Fc fusion protein with extended half-life in combination with CAR-T therapy could potentially prevent and reverse T cell exhaustion, ultimately improving the response rate and efficacy of cancer immunotherapy.Based on existing research, Leman Biotech has established the Meta 10 immune metabolic reprogramming technology platform and developed three pipelines: macromolecular drugs, cell therapies, and AI super factors. "In the cell therapy field, we follow a three-step approach: first, we choose well-established targets like CD19 and BCMA and corresponding hematologic cancer indications to verify the platforms efficacy and safety; then, we pursue differentiated innovation by targeting indications with poor existing treatment outcomes, such as adult chronic B-cell lymphocytic leukemia and pediatric malignant hematologic tumors.