Clover Biopharma of Chengdu closed an oversubscribed $230 million Series C round for its portfolio of protein-based vaccines and cancer therapies based on its Trimer-Tag^© technology. The company plans to start a global Phase II/III efficacy trial for its S-Trimer COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the first half of 2021. It has also begun making plans for producing hundreds of millions of vaccine doses before the end of the year. The Series C was co-led by GL Ventures, a Hillhouse venture fund, and Temasek, with participation from Oceanpine Capital, OrbiMed and Delos Capital.

Trimer-Tag^© allows the production of novel, covalently-trimerized fusion proteins. According to Clover, many major disease targets are trimerization-dependent, including the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily (involved in extrinsic apoptosis, immune co-stimulation and inflammation) and enveloped RNA virus antigens responsible for entry into host cells.

In the last 12 months, Clover has raised over $400 million in venture capital.

The company has also begun developing other vaccines including multivalent SARS-CoV-2 (covering multiple variants), rabies and influenza. SCB-313 is a novel TRAIL-Trimer fusion protein targeting intracavitary malignancies (including malignant ascites). It has started multiple Phase I clinical trials in Australia and China, with encouraging efficacy signals and a favorable safety profile demonstrated to-date. Clover also expects to advance several new pipeline products to the clinic in 2021, and it will also use the capital to expand its in-house R&D and cGMP commercial biomanufacturing capabilities. 

Joshua Liang, CEO and Board Director of Clover said, "Our goal has always been to bring our innovative vaccines and biologic therapies to the world by leveraging our proprietary Trimer-Tag^© platform technology, state-of-the art cGMP biomanufacturing capabilities, and passionate team of over 500 scientists, experienced industry professionals and advisors."

Michael Yi, Co-CIO and Partner of Hillhouse Capital, said: "We are pleased to support the continuous development of Clover's promising pipeline, centered on its novel Trimer-Tag^© technology platform. Clover has had a tremendous year of growth with the rapid advancement of the COVID-19 S-Trimer vaccine candidate through clinical development, and we look forward to potentially seeing the Company provide this much-needed vaccine to communities in need across the globe."

Clover is a global, clinical-stage, research-based biotechnology company focused on biologic therapies for oncology and autoimmune diseases, as well as viral vaccines.

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Disclosure: none.