Hummingbird Bioscience Holdings Pte. Ltd.

Founded in 2015 by CEO Piers Ingram and Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, and based in Singapore, Hummingbird Bioscience Pte. Ltd. also known as Hummingbird Bioscience Holdings Pte. Ltd.

is a clinical-stage biotech company that offers a new generation of transformative precision medicines against hard-to-drug targets focusing on HER3, a protein implanted in cancers. The company operates across the US and Singapore. In 2021, the company partnered with Novogene Co. , Ltd.

to identify solid tumor patients in China that are eligible for Hummingbird’s HER3- directed antibody, HMBD-001. In 2021, Hummingbird Bioscience Holdings Pte. Ltd. raised USD 125 million in Series C funding led by new investor Novo Holdings, with participation from other new investors and returning investors.

As of 2021, the company employs 25 employees. Hummingbird Bioscience utilizes computational biology tools to understand the structure and function of proteins involved in disease mechanisms and identify therapeutic targets, strategies, and epitopes. The company’s Rational Antibody Discovery platform consists of mABHits and mAbPredict that uses an immuno-engineering system to manipulate an immune response to control the production of antibodies against the optimal yet elusive epitopes on HER3, a part of the EGFR family and a protein implicated in many kinds of cancer, wherein the resultant antibodies potently blocked the HER3 activation to stop tumor cell growth. The platform also helps in the discovery of functional agonists and antagonists, antibodies against transmembrane proteins as well as the conserved regions of rapidly mutating e.

g. , viral proteins. The company has also identified biomarkers indicative of the patient population that could benefit the most from HER3 therapy such as patients whose tumors carry neuregulin 1 (NRG1)- fusions. Hummingbird’s pipeline consists of HMBD-001, the flagship precision therapy program that targets HER3, HMBD-002, an anti-VISTA (V-domain immunoglobulin suppressor of T cell activation) monoclonal antibody to inhibit tumor growth, and HMBD-009, that targets BCMA, and TACI proteins expressed on tumor cells in multiple myeloma.

Additionally, the firm also offers HMBD-011 which is in the pre-clinical stage. Hummingbird Bioscience’s plans on utilizing the Series C funding to develop its clinical antibodies HMBD-001, HMBD-002, and HMBD-009, along with its rational antibody discovery platform. The company plans on entering HMBD-001 in Phase 1 clinical trials by the end of 2021 and progressing its partnership with Novogene to identify biomarkers beyond NRG1-fusions.