LianBio, founded, seeded and incubated by Perceptive Advisors, announced its launch on 11 August 2020 with a diverse array of potentially transformative therapeutics from MyoKardia, BridgeBio Pharma, Inc. affiliate companies Navire Pharma and QED Therapeutics, as well as a strategic relationship with BridgeBio Pharma that provides LianBio preferential access to their portfolio of over 20 product candidates. 

LianBio’s mission is to catalyze the development and accelerate the availability of paradigm-shifting medicines and transformative therapeutics to patients in China and major Asian markets. With a China-centric execution strategy, LianBio partners with Perceptive Advisors to tap an unparalleled global innovation mining platform that matches scientific opportunity to local medical needs and provides select partners with access to the large and dynamic healthcare ecosystem in Asia, serving as an extension of their global development strategy in China. 

Joseph Edelman, Chief Executive Officer at Perceptive Advisors. “Our experience and precision-based asset mining platform will support and complement LianBio’s management team led by Bing Li and Debra Yu, seasoned executives with deep experience in the cross-border pharmaceutical landscape. This unique combination of talent and market savvy is already bearing fruit, including four partnerships to meet strong patient needs in target markets.”

“With over two decades experience investing in life science companies, we recognized the opportunity to leverage our knowledge, network and resources to launch a company dedicated to bringing the world’s leading science to one of the most dynamic healthcare markets in the world,” said Adam Stone, Chief Investment Officer, Perceptive Advisors. “Significant unmet medical need across the geography, coupled with our new generation business model, creates a unique and promising opportunity for Perceptive, LianBio and our business partners.” 

Building a Team Uniquely Suited to Foster Cross Border Collaboration for Breakthrough Advances in Medicine

Helmed by CEO, Bing Li and President & CBO Debra Yu, LianBio has assembled a strong executive team of highly regarded industry veterans with demonstrated experience leading pharmaceutical development in local and cross border markets. 

With offices in Shanghai and Princeton, New Jersey, LianBio has recruited world class operational leaders with extensive drug development and regulatory experience where innovation is a key objective. With a seasoned team heading critical clinical, medical, and regulatory in both Asia and the US, LianBio expects continued growth and plans to more than double its team by year-end. For bios on the full team, please visit www.lianbio.com/who-we-are.

Building a Pipeline Rooted in Science, Based on Disease Relevance and Driven by Patient Impact 

Employing a scientific and market insight-driven approach to selecting products and unique technology platforms, LianBio is focused on sourcing the world’s leading precision-based therapeutics and transformative mechanisms to effect broad impact on conditions of unmet medical need.

Through a series of strategic partnership, licensing and development agreements, LianBio is positioned to target critical unmet medical needs in local Asian markets with promising late-stage assets developed by industry pioneers. 

LianBio Cardiovascular: LianBio’s cardiorenal subsidiary is anchored by mavacamten. Mavacamten is a first-in-class small molecule therapeutic that reversibly binds to myosin to directly target the excess contractility and impaired relaxation underlying hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM.  Results from MyoKardia’s pivotal Phase 3 EXPLORER-HCM clinical trial of mavacamten for the treatment of patients with symptomatic obstructive HCM demonstrated statistically significant, clinically meaningful improvements in symptoms and cardiovascular function. MyoKardia plans to file for regulatory approval of mavacamten in the US in the first quarter of 2021 and is also pursuing the development of mavacamten for the treatment of non-obstructive HCM patients and select populations of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). 

LianBio Oncology: LianBio’s oncology subsidiary is anchored by infigratinib, a first-in-class, selective fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) inhibitor from QED Therapeutics, an affiliate of BridgeBio Pharma, currently in Phase 3 development for cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer, or CCA) and urothelial carcinoma among other FGFR-driven diseases. LianBio is pursuing the study of infigratinib in first line cholangiocarcinoma in mainland China as part of QED’s PROOF global Phase 3 study and further plans to initiate a Phase 2a study of infigratinib in gastric cancer and other FGFR-driven tumors. In addition, LianBio has licensed in BBP-398 from Navire Pharma, a novel SHP2 inhibitor focused on treating drug resistant tumors and other hard to treat cancers. LianBio will initially be studying BBP-398 in combination with various agents in solid tumors such as NSCLC, colorectal and pancreatic cancer, in mainland China and other major Asian markets.