China’s Brii Bio Raises $319 million in the Hong Kong IPO

China’s Brii Biosciences has raised $319 million in the initial public offering (IPO) in HKEX. The company announced that the proceeds would be used to support the development of its infectious diseases pipeline, including HBV, HIV, and COVID-19 therapies.

The firm released around 111 million shares on July 13th at HK$22.25 per share, and the cornerstone investors have agreed to acquire 47.52% of them.

“Listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange marks an important milestone for our company,” Brii Bio’s CEO Zhi Hong pointed out, “By leveraging our remarkable senior management as well as our experience of conducting multi-regional clinical trials, we will continue to expand our pipeline through our in-house R&D efforts, and in-licenses or collaborations on appropriate drug candidates.”

Brii Bio’s main focus is to deliver innovative solutions to treating infectious diseases and central nervous system (CNS) diseases. Their star pipeline included treatments for HBV, HIV, multidrug-resistant (MDR), extensive drug-resistant (XDR) gram-negative infections, and COVID-19.

Currently, the COVID-19 antibodies BRII-196 and BRII-198 are the most advanced in clinical trials. Both of them have entered phase 3 clinical trials. On the other hand, HBV therapies BRII-179 (immuno-therapy), BRII-835 (siRNA), and the combination therapies come next, entering Phase 2 clinical trials while HIV treatments are in Phase 1 trials.

As for CNS therapies, BRII-296 is tested for two indications: a Phase 1 clinical trial targeting postpartum depression (PPD) and the other in the preclinical stage addressing major depressive disorder (MDD).

On March 23rd, Brii Bio finished the Series C financing, scoring $155 million to boost its current pipeline.

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Author

Tyler Chen

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