HONG KONG – Adagene Inc., of Suzhou, China, raised $50 million in series C financing to push its antibody candidates, already in the process of investigational new drug (IND) filings, closer to clinical studies in China and the U.S.

The 6-year-old biotech company said investors have oversubscribed its third round of funding. With the cash injection, Adagene could soon make its foray into the global market.

Wu Ying, supervisor of the business development department of Adagene, told BioWorld that the company is yet to disclose more detailed information on the novel drugs. Co-founder and CEO Peter Luo said in a statement that the "funds from this round of financing will be used to advance novel antibody therapeutics into human trials across the globe."

"The novel drugs of Adagene that seek U.S. FDA's approval have a unique target mechanism and no marketing approval [of similar drugs] has been seen globally," Luo added.

New investor Sequoia China led the series C financing. New World TMT Ltd., which led Adagene's last round of financing, also participated, alongside Avic Trust, King Star Capital and Gopher Asset Management.

Adagene currently has six oncology products in its pipeline, with three of them in the IND-enabling stage. Despite being dubbed as a forerunner in third-generation antibody development, Adagene did not disclose much information about its products. But the company has recently partnered up with another leading Chinese biopharma player, Wuxi Biologics Inc., for the development and manufacturing of those antibodies.

"The funds raised this time will be used in our collaboration and clinical trials," Wuxi Biologics CEO Chris Chen told BioWorld.

On March 9, Adagene and Wuxi Biologics entered a strategic development and manufacturing partnership to support the supply of Adagene's products for clinical trials under IND applications in China and the U.S. The collaboration helps Adagene focus on developing novel antibody therapeutics while Wuxi Biologics manufactures the antibodies for antigens that are challenging to address.

"Leveraging the process development and manufacturing capabilities of Wuxi Biologics will accelerate Adagene's products into the clinic," Luo said of the collaboration.

Adagene also plans to find other partners for the lead programs in combination trials.

"The antibodies discovered from our Dynamic Precision Library [DPL] platform enable translational research of our therapeutic leads on the intact immune system of highly predictive preclinical models," said Luo, adding the technology helps discover highly differentiated portfolios of agonist and antagonist therapeutic antibodies.

Adagene's in-house DPL platform allows the company to unify technology for the generation and engineering of monospecific and bispecific antibody therapeutics. It helps differentiate between epitopes, allowing antibodies to bind to targets with a higher degree of precision and specificity.

The biotech company has completed three series of financing so far, with the first two raising more than $36 million. In 2014, it closed an $8 million series A financing with backing from F-Prime Capital (formerly Fidelity Biosciences), Eight Roads Ventures China (formerly Fidelity Growth Partners Asia) and Wuxi Venture Fund. Two years later, it completed a series B financing to add another $28 million for enhancing its technology-driven antibody discovery platform. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 29, 2016.)

Neil Shen, founding and managing partner of Sequoia China, Adagene's new investor, said its asset reflects the innovation originated from China.

"By leading the investment round, Sequoia China aims to help provide Adagene with the ability to drive long-term growth, as well as better the discovery of novel antibodies and next-generation therapeutics through the continued productivity of its discovery engine," said Shen.

Sequoia China has long been investing in health care. Last month, the firm took part in a $15 million investment for Xtalpi Inc., a U.S.-China biotech firm that uses artificial intelligence and computing to accelerate the development of new drugs.

Jimmy Wong, general manager of the business development department of New World TMT, told BioWorld that Adagene is the first biotech firm in which his company has invested. The Hong Kong-based company poured more capital in Adagene two years after the series B financing that it led. The investment company said the entrepreneurial and management team of Adagene has made major progress in R&D, giving it confidence to continue to invest in the biotech company.