Less than two years after laying out plans to divest its China operations and become a U.S.-focused biotech, I-Mab Biopharma is re-staking its claim in the Asia-Pacific region.
The drugmaker mapped out a new business strategy this week that includes the pursuit of an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, while also maintaining its stateside Nasdaq listing. Details about the size, timing and terms of the Hong Kong IPO are “forthcoming,” I-Mab said in Thursday’s announcement.
The company pointed to the “significant growth potential” of biopharma innovations out of the Asia-Pacific region and the “increasingly agile and efficient” biopharma ecosystem there.
“We believe we are entering a new era of rapid growth in the global biotech economy, driven by greater innovation capability in China and Asia and a resurgence of investment in high growth international markets across Asia,” said Fu Wei, I-Mab’s executive chairman, adding that the dual listing “will enable us to broaden and diversify our investor base, and enhance trading liquidity and access to capital, while strengthening our presence with key stakeholders in the rapidly growing Asian market.”
The company is also overhauling its business model, repositioning itself as a “global biotech platform” at the center of a hub-and-spoke model, where each spoke is a specialized subsidiary company focused on a specific asset or therapeutic area.
Along with the updated model, I-Mab plans to take a new name: NovaBridge Biosciences, subject to approval at a shareholder meeting next week.
I-Mab shares were trending downward in the wake of the many updates, dropping about 20% from $6.56 at market close Thursday to around $5.30 by midmorning Friday.
Related
One of the renovated model’s spokes, also unveiled Thursday, is the newly formed Visara. The subsidiary will focus on clinical-stage development of therapeutics for serious eye disorders, starting with an asset to be named VIS-101, pending its acquisition from AffaMed Therapeutics.
Visara is launching with $37 million from I-Mab and will be led by Emmett Cunningham Jr., M.D., Ph.D., an ophthalmologist and longtime biotech investor and entrepreneur. The asset acquisition is expected to close by the end of this month.
The candidate, currently known as AM712 and ASKG712, is a bispecific VEGF-A/ANG2 inhibitor in development as a treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema and retinal vein occlusion. Upon completion of an ongoing phase 2 study in China, I-Mab is expecting the molecule to be ready for phase 3 trials next year.
Cunningham described the asset as “second-in-class with best-in-class potential” and said Visara will pursue “accelerated global clinical development and regulatory approvals.”
Once the acquisition is complete, VIS-101 will join givastomig as I-Mab’s lead candidates. Earlier this year, the company said it would pause work on the Sanofi-partnered anti-CD73 antibody uliledlimab to focus instead on the CLDN18.2×4-1BB bispecific givastomig, a shift that included layoffs of about 27% of staff.
I-Mab doubled down on that move several months later with the July acquisition of Bridge Health, then the owner of the CLDN18.2 parental antibody used in the drug.
Givastomig is currently under investigation as a potential treatment for gastric cancer and other Claudin 18.2-positive gastrointestinal malignancies, with I-Mab planning to begin enrollment in a phase 2 study in the first quarter of next year.
