Neomorph, Inc.

A small startup based in San Diego and Shanghai believes it has figured out how to boost hemoglobin levels with a pill, potentially offering a cheaper and simpler alternative to expensive and onerous gene editing therapies for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. GluBio Therapeutics is planning Phase 1 clinical trials for two experimental drugs later this year. The work has attracted Sanofi’s attention, which is investing $30 million, the startup told Endpoints News in an exclusive interview. Sanofi will have first dibs on negotiating a license for the two drugs, which belong to a class of compounds called molecular glues that stick to proteins and mark them for destruction. By targeting two proteins that repress the production of fetal hemoglobin, GluBio hopes to restore the oxygen-carrying molecule that most people stop making after birth. The approach is conceptually similar to the mechanism of Casgevy, the gene editing therapy sold by CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, which targets one of the genetic switches that keeps fetal hemoglobin turned off in children and adults. Other companies are on the same trail as GluBio, including Bristol Myers Squibb and Novartis , which have quietly begun their own Phase 1 studies of small molecules that boost fetal hemoglobin. The startup will run the Phase 1a study in healthy volunteers in China, which CEO Gang Lu said can be done in roughly half the time and at a quarter of the cost of a similar study in the US. “That’s the reason that Sanofi asked us to complete Phase 1 trials,” he said. The idea that a small molecule drug, which must be taken chronically, could compete with a one-time treatment is a surprising twist in the sickle cell saga. When the CRISPR therapy was approved just over two years ago, it was heralded as a highly-anticipated cure for a long-neglected disease. Sensing that the window for new treatments was closing, several other companies stopped developing their own experimental therapies. But as of January, only about 60 patients have received the $2.2 million gene editing treatment — compared with approximately 100,000 patients in the US. That slow uptake, coupled with Pfizer’s decision to pull its sickle cell pill Oxbryta off the market for safety reasons, has reopened the door for rivals. Two obscure proteins dubbed WIZ and ZBTB7A are at the center of the molecular glue approach. The CRISPR therapy inhibits a different transcription factor called BCL11A, but GluBio believes its drugs will have a similar effect. “It’s the same pathway,” Lu said. “We saw the same level of fetal hemoglobin induction.” The Novartis compound degrades WIZ, and the BMS compound is a dual degrader of both WIZ and ZBTB7A — which biologists once playfully referred to as Pokémon before the game company threatened to sue . GluBio is advancing both a WIZ degrader and a dual degrader. The new funding brings GluBio’s total raised to $117 million since its launch in 2021. The company was born of Lu’s frustration with working on protein degraders at bigger companies — first at Celgene, which was acquired by Bristol Myers, and then briefly at the protein degrader startup Neomorph. He had ideas for new drug targets that he wanted to explore, but his supervisors either turned them down or said he would have to wait for the board’s approval. “I didn’t feel like I had the freedom to operate,” Lu said. “So that’s why I left Neomorph after four months and co-founded GluBio.” He was joined by Liqiang Fu, a chemist who was running into similar hurdles getting his ideas cleared at Johnson & Johnson’s protein degradation unit in China. Backed with $20 million in seed funding, the duo launched GluBio in 2021 and raised a $67 million Series A the following year. Today, Lu helms an eight-person biology team in San Diego, and Fu leads a 14-person chemistry team in Shanghai. The company already has molecular glues targeting two emerging cancer targets, CK1α and IKZF1/3, in clinical trials. GluBio’s investors are all Chinese firms, and include Kaitai Capital, Legend Capital, K2VC, Hillhouse Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Lilly Asia Ventures and E Fund. They’ve given the company “more freedom” to explore relatively novel biology, Lu said. “We come up with an idea, we ask scientists to set up experiments. Typically, in a couple of weeks, we have an answer, and we nominate a program right away,” he said.

Initiation of trial marks first-in-human milestone for Neomorph’s novel molecular glue degrader platform SAN DIEGO, Feb. 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Neomorph, Inc. , a biotechnology company pioneering molecular glue degraders to address previously undruggable proteins, today announced the first patient has been dosed in the Phase 1/2 clinical trial ( NCT07300241 ) evaluating NEO-811, a novel investigational molecular glue degrader, in patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-resectable clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). “Dosing the first patient in our Phase 1/2 trial of NEO-811 in renal cell carcinoma marks a pivotal inflection point for Neomorph, representing the first clinical evaluation of an asset from our internally developed pipeline,” said Phil Chamberlain, DPhil., Co-Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Neomorph. “As we advance in the clinic, we look forward to generating data that will inform the continued development of NEO-811 and further validate the potential of our platform to deliver differentiated medicines for patients with significant unmet need.” The Phase 1/2 NEO-811-101 trial is a first-in-human, open-label study consisting of a single agent dose-escalation phase followed by dose expansion cohorts. The study is designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and preliminary anti-tumor activity of NEO-811 in patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-resectable ccRCC. “We are pleased to have the first patient dosed in the Phase 1/2 study of NEO-811,” said Toni Choueiri, MD, Director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and chair of the study steering committee. “NEO-811 is a novel, potent, cereblon-dependent, and selective molecular glue degrader designed to fully block a key signaling pathway in clear cell renal cell cancer. The unique mechanism of action of NEO-811 is quite promising and could offer a new treatment option for patients.” About NEO-811 NEO-811 is an investigational molecular glue degrader designed to induce targeted degradation of a key disease-driving protein and fully block a central signaling pathway implicated in ccRCC. By leveraging a differentiated degradation mechanism, NEO-811 has the potential to address underlying tumor biology that remains inadequately treated with current standards of care. NEO-811 is currently being evaluated as a monotherapy in a first-in-human Phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-resectable ccRCC. About Neomorph Neomorph is a biotechnology company pioneering the discovery and development of molecular glue degraders to unlock new therapeutic possibilities across serious diseases. By engineering neomorphic protein surfaces, Neomorph enables precision targeted protein degradation of disease drivers that have historically been considered undruggable. As a leader in molecular glue technology, Neomorph has created the world’s largest proprietary molecular glue target space, spanning multiple novel degrons across an expansive portfolio of E3 ubiquitin ligases. The company was founded in 2020 and is venture-backed by Deerfield Management Company. For more information, visit and follow us on LinkedIn . Contacts Investor Contact: inquiries@neomorph.com Media Contact: media@neomorph.com

AbbVie began 2025 with a T cell engager deal in China, and it’s ending the year with another one. The Chicago-area pharmaceutical giant is going to Zelgen Biopharmaceuticals for a clinical-stage T cell engager called ZG006, or alveltamig, according to a Shanghai Stock Exchange filing and local financial information websites. AbbVie will pay $100 million upfront, as much as $60 million in licensing options payments and up to $1.075 billion in biobucks. The deal adds to a significant ramp-up in China-to-West biopharma collaborations this year as the East Asian country has become the go-to place for drugmakers to find their next blockbuster medicines. The move echoes AbbVie’s TCE pact with Simcere Pharmaceutical at the beginning of 2025, when it offered as much as $1.1 billion for the multiple myeloma treatment prospect SIM0500. Zelgen and Simcere are just two of the many deals this year for AbbVie, which has been working to bolster its autoimmune, cancer and neuro franchises, as well as to step into the bustling obesity space. It’s signed this year with Gilgamesh , Neomorph, Xilio, Ichnos, Capstan, Gubra, ADARx and others. With Zelgen, AbbVie gains rights outside of Greater China to alveltamig, a DLL3-targeting TCE that is in Phase 3 testing in China. Zelgen is developing alveltamig for forms of small cell lung cancer. The DLL3 protein is a target of multiple drugs, including Amgen’s marketed medicine Imdelltra. Other biopharma companies developing medicines in the space include Zai Lab , Ideaya Biosciences , Merck and partner Daiichi Sankyo , Roche and Boehringer Ingelheim .