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D3 Bio Launches with $200 Million to Advance Precision Medicine in Oncology and Immunology Space
On November 17th, global biotech D3 Bio launched with a $200 million Series A financing by Boyu Capital, Matrix Partners China, Wuxi AppTech, Temasek, and Sequoia. The funding will support the development of D3 Bio’s portfolio in oncology and immunology to address the current inefficacious medical treatments in an extraordinary approach.
The mainstream approach to R&D usually begins with laboratory insights, rather than a standard-of-care approach. However, D3 plans to implement a standard-of-care approach that utilizes existing clinical data to lead to discovery and then returns to drug development.
“This cycle of drug development that allows for subsequent discovery and innovation is at the core of D3 Bio. In fact, it underlies our name: Development leading to Discovery that then leads back to more Development or D3 Bio,” said ex-AstraZeneca executive and the D3 Bio’s Co-Founder, George Chen, M.D.
“Our mission at D3 Bio is to build a global biotechnology company that develops innovative and more efficacious medicines for patients worldwide. The financing and support of our approach by reputable institutional investors give us a great start as we begin our journey to transform drug development to accomplish our mission,” he added.
D3’s Outstanding Leadership Experience
The inspiration for developing medication from clinical insights by Dr. Chen was sparked from years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Chen earned his medical degree from the Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University and his MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also worked on senior research, management, business development, medical affairs, and drug development at leading pharma and institutions such as the National Institutes of Health, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca.
In addition, he spent two years as a Chief Medical Officer at BeiGene before starting at AstraZeneca where he served as Senior Vice President for Global Oncology R&D. He also has experience in regulatory registrations and market introductions of blockbuster drugs in both the US and Chinese markets, including more than 70 Investigational New Drug (IND) and more than 30 New Drug Application (NDA) approvals.
“Our R&D programs in oncology and immunology are designed to address current unmet clinical needs and to provide the structure, or ‘backbone,’ upon which future drugs can be developed. D3 Bio intends to create a robust portfolio comprised of internal core assets that can be leveraged for follow-on development as well as in-licensed early-stage clinical assets. We expect our entire portfolio to enable discovery and development of additional indications and combination regimens.” said Dr. Chen.
Why China?
Besides his extensive experience in the country, China is also the second-largest global pharmaceutical market with diverse and world-class resources. Dr. Chen believes that “leveraging these resources, we expect to accelerate development and delivery of novel, life-transforming therapeutics to serve patients worldwide [as well as] our strong and agile team of scientific innovators and business executives are experienced in discovery, development, and commercialization.”
“We believe that a tremendous amount of medical innovation will be created by D3 Bio coupling China’s talent pool with the global R&D ecosystem. We share D3 Bio’s vision of developing innovative drugs by integrating deep clinical insights with creative science and technology.” said his partner. Yanling Cao from Boyu Capital, one of the funding sources.
“D3 Bio’s founders and management team have already demonstrated strong track records and leadership in delivering many first-in-class and blockbuster medications into China from major international pharmaceutical companies,” he added.
By Judy Ya-Hsuan Lin
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