Hinge Bio, a privately-held biotechnology company, announced the closing of a Series A’ financing led by Point72. Joining Point72 are Ridgeback Capital, InVivium Capital, and Lightswitch Capital, and others.
The proceeds of the funding will support entry of the Company’s lead product candidate, HB2198, into a Phase 1 clinical trial in patients living with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and development of additional therapeutics from Hinge Bio’s proprietary GEM-DIMERTM platform to treat diseases with high unmet need.
Hinge Bio’s lead candidate from its GEM-DIMERTM platform HB2198 is expected to enter clinical development during 2025. And the program seeks to treat B cell-mediated autoimmune disorders by targeting both CD19 and CD20 with enhanced natural killer cell engagement. Pre-clinical in vivo studies have demonstrated deeper and more rapid B cell depletion than has been reported for other antibody-based therapies.
The therapeutic goal of HB2198 is to achieve a reset of the immune system through rapid and deep B cell depletion in peripheral blood and lymphoid tissues, with the convenience, accessibility, cost and safety benefits of an off-the-shelf antibody-based therapeutic.
KEY QUOTES:
“Hinge Bio is committed to developing life-changing medicines for patients with intractable diseases. These funds will enable early clinical demonstration of the safety and efficacy of HB2198 in Lupus patients as well as the pre-clinical evaluation of a variety of other constructs of interest to both patients as well as pharmaceutical company partners.”
- Chief Executive Officer Barry Selick, Ph.D.
“Hinge’s GEM-DIMER technology has broad applicability across therapeutic areas and constructs, and we believe HB2198 only begins to show the promise of Hinge’s platform. The talented team at Hinge is well positioned to develop exciting medicines that have the potential to both improve upon current standards of care and harness novel pathways. We believe HB2198 can be a best-in-disease therapeutic for multiple indications that can be broadly, safely, and easily used by healthcare practitioners from academic centers to community practices.”
- Alex Silverstein, Portfolio Manager at Point72
“Hinge has developed a platform to create best in class medicines against known and novel targets. The lead program is a B-cell depleting medicine that we believe will be as efficacious as a CD19 CART in autoimmune disease with the safety and tolerability of a simple monoclonal antibody. This would allow for a profound benefit and immune reset across a wide range of autoimmune diseases with a simple short term IV or SubQ therapy. This may transform autoimmune disease and leapfrog competing platforms such as CART and T-cell engagers in the B cell depletion field.”
- Wayne Holman, Founder & CEO of Ridgeback Capital
