Kailera Therapeutics, Inc.

The China-to-US experimental medicine pipeline is ballooning: yet another US-based biotech formed around a candidate from China’s Keymed Biosciences on Monday. Life sciences investment firm RTW has set up a company called Prolium to take forward a CD20×CD3 bispecific known as CM355 outside Asia, the companies said in a press release and Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing . Prolium will get rights to develop the antibody in both oncology and non-oncology indications in exchange for $17.5 million upfront and up to $502.5 million in biobucks. Keymed will split its earnings with partner Beijing InnoCare. The companies will also get a minority equity stake in the new company, according to the HKEX filing. China-derived drug candidates have featured prominently in the pipelines of recently launched biotechs: four of the 10 megarounds so far this year have gone to biotechs developing such assets. Chengdu-based Keymed is one of the many biopharmas driving the trend, having out-licensed candidates to two new companies earlier this month. Timberlyne Therapeutics emerged with $180 million and Ouro Medicines debuted with $120 million. And last year, Belenos Biosciences broke cover with two Keymed assets and a former Biohaven executive at the helm. RTW, meanwhile, has recently taken part in similar newco formations. It helped form Kailera Therapeutics , which launched last year with $400 million and a Phase 3-ready obesity drug candidate from China-headquartered Hengrui.

Two biotechs emerged on Friday with assets from Keymed Biosciences, extending a proliferating trend of Western investors propping up new companies to further develop assets discovered or initially created in China. Timberlyne Therapeutics broke cover with $180 million to take forward a CD38-targeted monoclonal antibody. Meanwhile, GSK-backed Ouro Medicines debuted with $120 million. Timberlyne is dishing out $30 million in near-term payments and up to $337.5 million in biobucks to Keymed, which gets a 25% stake in the new company. Ouro’s pact includes $16 million to start and up to $610 million in milestones for a T cell engager. Keymed disclosed both in HKEX filings . OrbiMed also formed a biotech, Belenos Biosciences , around a Keymed asset last year. Additional details were thin on San Diego-based Timberlyne, which is being backed by key investors Abingworth, Bain Capital Life Sciences and Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners. The company did not announce any leadership in its press release. Bain has done a few biotech deals revolving around China-based assets in recent years, including asthma biotech Aiolos and obesity drug developer Kailera . As has Venrock, most recently with Candid Therapeutics . Timberlyne’s other investors include Boyu Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures, Braidwell LP and 3H Health Investment. Timberlyne will get ex-China rights to CM313, a monoclonal antibody that could be tested for numerous diseases. The experimental medicine has “transformative potential in autoimmune diseases,” Keymed said in its Hong Kong stock exchange filing. Keymed has tested CM313 in clinical trials in patients with immune thrombocytopenia, systemic lupus erythematosus, and relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. It will provide clinical supply of the drug to Timberlyne. A relatively unknown biopharma creation firm, named Mountainfield Venture Partners, helped form Timberlyne. The venture firm’s leaders include managing partners David Socks and Daniel Curran. Socks was previously a venture partner at Frazier Life Sciences, where he co-founded companies like HilleVax and Passage Bio. Curran was previously head of rare disease therapies at Takeda. Mountainfield appears to have formed last year, and Timberlyne seems to be its first disclosed portfolio company. Curran has been managing partner at the firm since March 2024, according to an SEC filing. Abingworth, Venrock and GV are investors in Mountainfield, according to its website.

Dive Brief:A year after negotiating a $1 billion sale to GSK, a group of former Aiolos Bio executives are starting a well-funded new drugmaker promising to deliver better obesity treatments.Verdiva Bio announced its launch Thursday alongside $411 million in Series A financing, the third-largest funding round since the beginning of 2022 among the top venture capital firms tracked by BioPharma Dive. Forbion and General Atlantic led the financing, with participation from RA Capital Management, OrbiMed, Logos Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures and LYFE Capital.Former Aiolos CEO Khurem Farooq will take the top post at Verdiva with a management team that includes Chief Scientific Officer Jane Hughes, Chief Business Officer Tapan Maniar and Chief Technology Officer Ashley Taylor, who all held the same posts at Aiolos. Mark Pruzanski, the former CEO of Versanis Bio and founder of Intercept Pharmaceuticals, was named chairman.Dive Insight:Verdiva joins a long list of obesity drug startups launched over the last year, including Metsera, Antag Therapeutics, SixPeaks Bio, Pep2Tango Therapeutics and Kailera Therapeutics, which emerged from stealth just months ago with a $400 million financing.All of the newcomers are eyeing the booming market for obesity drugs dominated by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. And theyre promising to offer better options in the form of pills or longer-lasting alternatives to the injectable medicines that are now raking in billions of dollars.The startups are not alone. Drugmakers large and small are racing to develop new obesity medicines, and both Novo and Lilly have successors in the works. Biopharma investment in metabolic treatments more than tripled between 2023 and 2024, according to data compiled by HSBCs Innovation Banking division.Verdiva says it has an experimental treatment in the same GLP-1 class as Novos Wegovy and Lillys Zepboundthat can be administered once a week and is ready for Phase 2 testing. Its also developing a once-weekly oral medicine known as an amylin agonist that could be used alone or in combination with a GLP-1 treatment, as well as a long-acting injectable amylin agonist.The new company is part of a growing trend in the industry, looking to China to pluck effective medicines to develop or build a company around. Verdiva licensed its portfolio from Chinas Sciwind Biosciences and has rights to the drugs outside greater China and South Korea.Kailera, Candid Therapeutics and Aiolos also built companies based on medicines acquired from Chinese drugmakers. And in the last year, Merck licensed from China experimental drugs for autoimmune disease, obesity and cancer. '