HARBOUR BIOMED LAUNCHES NONA BIOSCIENCES' "IDEAS TO IND" PRECLINICAL SOLUTIONS BUSINESS TO ACCELERATE GLOBAL BIOTHERAPEUTIC INNOVATION

USA - English

• USA - English

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., ROTTERDAM, Netherlands and SUZHOU, China, Nov. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Harbor BioMed (HKEX: 02142) today announced establishment of a wholly-owned subsidiary, Nona Biosciences, to provide next-generation antibody and biotherapeutic solutions to partners from discovery to IND. The new subsidiary will leverage Harbour BioMed's technology platforms, including its Harbour Mice^® and HBICE^® for fully human antibody generation, and demonstrated expertise in discovery and development, along with an innovative business model to make these technologies broadly accessible to biotechnology and biopharma companies and academic institutions.

Nona Biosciences has wisely opened access to its industry-leading patented technology platform Harbour Mice^® with a flexible business model, in order to remove platform barriers for partners and to enable the platform and technology to truly empower the discovery and development of next-generation innovative therapeutics worldwide. This new approach provides a significant new alternative to the company's Harbour Mice^® platform licensing.

"The biopharma industry is moving towards more complex, fully human biologic therapeutics, such as bi-specific antibodies and antibody drug conjugates, as well as cell therapies including CAR-T, CAR-NK and mRNA-based drugs," said Dr. Jingsong Wang, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Harbour BioMed. "Nona Biosciences will capitalize on our strong track record in biologic discovery and development, and the validation of our Harbour Mice^® platform, which has been widely adopted by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and academic centers. We believe our platforms, model and highly experienced team will empower our partners to drive biotherapeutic innovation, benefit industry-wide development, and ultimately patients, worldwide."

Since Harbour BioMed was founded six years ago, the company built and applied its discovery platforms to create an extensive therapeutic pipeline. The Harbour Mice^® platforms have been validated by more than 50 corporate and academic partners including Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Over 10 projects have reached clinical trials.

Nona Biosciences Proprietary Integrated Technological Platforms

Nona Biosciences' new research and discovery services will include a set of integrated technologies that provide a comprehensive solution to antibody discovery, engineering and development.

The discovery platform is anchored by the Harbour Mice^® technologies for fully human antibody generation for a wide range of novel biomolecules. The technologies enable both fully human monoclonal antibodies in the classical two light and two heavy chain (H2L2) format, and heavy chain only (HCAb) format. The technologies afford new approaches to developing immuno-oncology therapies, immune cell therapy, multi-specific antibody engineering and antibody drug conjugate development.

The platform also includes HBICE^®, Harbour BioMed's HCAb-based immune cell engager bispecific platform. The HBICE^® platform affords unique advantages for the development of novel bispecific antibodies. 

Nona Biosciences integrates these innovative platforms with quality services that cover antigen preparation, animal immunization, single B cell screening, antibody lead generation and engineering, developability assessment and pharmacological evaluation.

About Nona Biosciences

Nona Biosciences (a wholly-owned subsidiary of HBM Holdings, HKEX: 02142) is a global biotechnology company committed to providing a total solution from "Idea to IND" ("I to I^TM"), ranging from target validation and antibody discovery through preclinical research. The integrated antibody and antibody-related discovery services with multiple modalities range from antigen preparation, animal immunization, single B cell screening, to antibody lead generation and engineering, developability assessment and pharmacological evaluation, leveraging advantages of Harbour Mice^® platforms and the experienced therapeutic antibody discovery team.

Harbour Mice^® generates fully human monoclonal antibodies in classical two light and two heavy chain (H2L2) format, and heavy chain only (HCAb) format. Integrating Harbour Mice^® and a single B cell cloning platform, Nona Biosciences is focused on driving global inventions of transformative next-generation drugs. More information, please check www.nonabio.com 

SOURCE Harbour BioMed