Nona Biosciences Enters into Collaboration Agreement with ExeVir Bio

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Nona Biosciences, a wholly-owned subsidiary of HBM Holdings Limited, committed to cutting-edge technology innovation and provider of integrated solutions from "Idea to IND" (I to I^™ ), announced today it has entered into a collaboration agreement with ExeVir Bio. The collaboration aims to accelerate the development of innovative therapeutics for unmet needs in infectious diseases, harnessing the combined expertise and resources of both companies.

Jingsong Wang, MD, PhD, Chairman of Nona Biosciences, said, " By combining our respective expertise in antibody engineering and the disease area, we are confident that this collaboration will yield groundbreaking discoveries and bring us closer to eradicating the most challenging infectious diseases."

Dr. Torsten Mummenbrauer, CEO of ExeVir, added, " The collaboration with Nona Biosciences will be an important support in our ongoing research on bringing new infectious diseases treatments to patients and will deliver additional options to ExeVir's pipeline in infectious diseases.

About Nona Biosciences

Nona Biosciences (a wholly-owned subsidiary of HBM Holdings, HKEX: 02142) is a global biotechnology company committed to cutting edge technology innovation, and providing a total solution from "Idea to IND" (I to I^™ ), 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) formats. Integrating Harbour Mice^® and a single B cell cloning platform, Nona Biosciences is focused on driving global inventions of transformative next-generation drugs. For more information, please visit: www.nonabio.com 

About ExeVir Bio

ExeVir Bio is a clinical stage biotechnology company developing single-domain antibody based therapeutics focusing on infectious diseases. The company is harnessing its llama-derived antibody (VHH) technology platform to generate multi-specific antibodies for prophylaxis and treatment of infectious diseases. ExeVir's initial focus is on prevention of COVID-19 for the immunocompromised patient population, including active chemotherapy, immunosuppressive drugs, solid organ transplantation, hematological malignancies, and AIDS patients, where there remains a high unmet need due to the limitations of current vaccines and therapeutic approaches.

ExeVir's COVID-19 pipeline includes XVR012, a combination product of XVR013 and XVR014, a bi-specific single-domain-based antibody construct which targets two conserved epitopes in the S1 subunit. Together they target several S1 and S2 epitopes in one product.

ExeVir is a spin out of VIB, the leading Belgium-based life sciences research institute. It is backed by strong investors including Fund+, which led the series A of EUR 42 million, together with an international consortium including UCB Ventures, FPIM, V-Bio Ventures, VIB, SRIW, Noshaq, Vives IUF and SambrInvest. ExeVir has received support from VLAIO, the SPW-Recherche and the European Union, leading to a total of €16.5M in non-dilutive funding. In 2023, Exivir secured an option for EUR 25 million venture debt financing from the European Investment Bank.

Find out more on ExeVir's LinkedIn or on ExeVir's website

SOURCE Nona Biosciences