DURHAM – Brii Biosciences, a startup based in China and Durham, has raised $155 million in a new round of funding.

The company launched in 2018 with $260 million in committed venture-backing to deliver breakthrough medicines to China.

Brii Biosciences

The funding will be used to advance Brii Bio’s broad infectious diseases pipeline as well as its central nervous system program.

“Since our founding in 2018, Brii Bio has made tremendous progress toward our mission to accelerate the development and delivery of breakthrough medicines through partnerships and our own insight in highly differentiated medicine discovery,” said Zhi Hong, CEO of Brii Bio, in the announcement. “As we work to address some of the world’s biggest public health issues and disease burdens, we are pleased and honored to have the support of investors who share our mission to discover, develop and deliver innovative treatments for patients not only in China, but throughout the world.”

Brii Biosciences launches with $260M in committed funding

Invesco Developing Markets Fund led the Series C round along with GIC, Lake Bleu Capital and other existing investors.

Here’s where the company stands on various programs as explained by Brii Bio:

  • HBV: Initiation of a phase 2 study of BRII-835 (VIR-2218) in combination with BRII-179 (VBI-2601) in patients who are chronically infected with HBV is planned for March 2021, and will be the subject of a separate announcement.
  • COVID-19 antibody therapies: BRII-196 and BRII-198, non-competing SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies are part of the Phase 2/3 studies under ACTIV-2 master protocols, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • Multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections: BRII-636 (OMNIvanceTM), BRII-672 (ORAvanceTM) and BRII-693 (QPX-9003) are potent antibiotics against WHO-designated critical pathogens for the treatment of carbapenemase producin Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii.
  • New HIV treatment options – Once Weekly Single Tablet Regimen (QW STR): phase 1 clinical study for BRII-778 has started and a U.S IND for BRII-732 was submitted in March. The company will investigate the potential of prolonged dosing interval for treatment of people who live with HIV.
  • Novel treatment for central nervous system (CNS) disease: The phase 1 clinical trials for BRII-296 will begin shortly under a U.S. IND.