Lion TCR Pte Ltd, a clinical stage biotech pioneering T cell therapy against viral- related cancer, announced they have raised US$ 20 million in its Series A financing round. The money raised is led primarily by undisclosed existing investors and other new investors such as Yashang Capital and Westlake Ventures Capital.
The proceeds from this fund raising will be primarily used to advance its on-going clinical trials of its lead candidate LioCyx (personalised HBV specific TCR T cell therapy against HCC) in major hospitals in China and Singapore, as well as for broadening its products pipeline to fight viral-related solid tumors and clearance of chronic hepatitis B.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has over 700,000 new cases every year, the world second deadly cancer, of which 80% in Asia Pacific and 50% in China. Initial clinical trials of LioCyx for late stage HCC have produced encouraging results of good efficacy and very good safety profile. LioCyx is developed by Lion TCR's scientific founder, Prof. Antonio Bertoletti. The team and its collaborators in Singapore General Hospital have recently won the 2018 Sing Health Duke-NUS Research Award 1st Prize and the Best Abstract in EASL International Liver Congress 2018.
Dr. Victor Li, founder and CEO of Lion TCR, said "This finance is also a recognition of the potential, versatility, and uniqueness of Lion TCR's novel viral specific TCR T cell technology platform and its products pipeline. It will allow us to accelerate the completion of phase 1/2a clinical trial of LioCyx to treat relapsed HCC case post-liver transplantation and expand the therapy clinical trials for other indications of HCC. With a strong internal scientific team as well as collaborators from world renowned cancer research and medical centres in China, Singapore and Europe, Lion TCR continues to advance its pioneer position on engineered T cell therapy against viral related cancer and clearance of chronic hepatitis infection".
Lion TCR is a Singapore-based clinical stage biotech company focusing on development of engineered T-cell immunotherapy against viral-related cancer and chronic hepatitis B with manufacturing and clinical trial operations in China and Singapore. It is world's first to develop HBV-specific TCR T cell therapy against HCC.
Over one fifth of cancer in Asia are related to infection, primary viral infection. For instances, Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is 100% related to EBV infection and over 90% of HCC is related to HBV infection in China.
Lion TCR's engineer T cell technologies are exclusively licensed initially from Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore (TCR-T cell therapy developed by Prof. Antonio Bertoletti's lab) and lately from Technical University of Munich (CAR-T cell therapy developed by Prof. Urlike Protzer's lab).