A biotechnology company with headquarters in China and a presence in Connecticut said it has raised $56 million to advance a new drug for hepatitis B into human testing.
Drug Farm, founded by a former longtime vice chair of genetics at Yale University and helmed by a biotech veteran from Guilford, said it will use the Series A funding to advance its lead drug, DF-006, into clinical trials this year.
The funding will also be used to develop additional drug candidates in Drug Farm’s pipeline, which includes treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Investors in the round include BioVeda China Fund (BVCF), WuXi AppTec’s corporate venture fund, South China Venture Capital (SCVC), Detong Capital and Zhejiang United Investment Group.
The company describes its lead drug as a first-in-class treatment for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) that works by modulating the body’s own innate immunity.
CEO Henri Lichenstein, who is leading the company virtually from Guilford, said treatment for HBV infection remains a big unmet medical need worldwide.
“Despite the availability of several drugs that can decrease viral load, cure is seldom achieved,” he said.
Drug Farm currently has 80 employees at its lab/offices in China and working remotely throughout the United States, including three team members in Connecticut, Lichenstein said.
Lichenstein
The company was founded in Shanghai in 2016 by Tian Xu, who spent 25 years as vice chair of genetics at Yale, and is still an adjunct professor there. He is currently vice president of Westlake University in China.
Drug Farm uses technology known as piggyBac transposon mutagenesis to generate a library of genetic mutations in mice that are then analyzed to identify new drug targets and connect them to diseases.
“Using our deep learning AI technology, we have been able to rapidly develop small molecule drugs against these targets, with an initial focus on HBV,” Xu said in a statement.
Lichtenstein said in an email that he has been on the company’s board of directors for five years and recently became CEO.
His resume includes drug development roles at California biotech Amgen as well as CuraGen Corp., the genome-based drug company founded by New Haven scientist Jonathan Rothberg.
Lichenstein and Xu also teamed with Rothberg in 2013 to start Guilford-based AI Therapeutics (formerly LAM Therapeutics), a company that uses artificial intelligence to discover and repurpose drugs. But Lichenstein said he is no longer involved with the company.
Contact Natalie Missakian at news@newhavenbiz.com