Leman Biotech completes new Series A financing of nearly 200 million, pioneering disruptive immunocellular therapies with metabolic reprogramming technology

On March 4, 2026, Leman Biotech announced the completion of a new Series A financing round totaling nearly 200 million yuan. This financing round was jointly led by Yuecai Zhongyin Private Equity, an entity under Yuecai Holdings, and XtalPi, with participation from Kuangshi Zhixing, Mony Valley, Tailong Capital, Zhongshan Investment Holdings, as well as individual financial investors. Existing shareholder Fuho Capital also continued to increase its investment.

The proceeds will be primarily used to advance the registration-stage Phase I clinical study of Leman Biotech's ultra-low dose metabolically armored CAR-T cell therapy, accelerate the development and validation of automated manufacturing processes, and initiate the clinical translation of metabolically armored cell therapies for solid tumors. Leman Biotech had previously received investments from institutions including XtalPi, Tiantu Capital, 5Y Capital, Fuho Capital, and Junyi Capital. This financing round signifies the continued high recognition by investors of Leman Biotech's first-in-class immunometabolic reprogramming technology and its clinical value, injecting strong momentum to accelerate Leman Biotech's high-quality development.

Leman Biotech was established in 2021 as a clinical-stage innovative drug development company focused on immunometabolism. Co-founded by the team of Professor Tang Li from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) together with XtalPi, Leman Biotechspecializes in the research, development, manufacturing, and commercialization of novel immunocellular therapies. Under the leadership of co-founder Professor Tang Li, the core team at Leman Biotech has long been at the forefront of cellular immunotherapy research. Their findings have been published in top-tier international academic journals such as Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Immunology, and The Lancet Haematology, and they have filed multiple PCT and Chinese invention patents.

Leman Biotech has received dozens of national, provincial, and municipal awards in the biomedical field. These include the highest award in the National Disruptive Technology Innovation Competition, the Silver Award in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, and the Second Prize in the China Shenzhen Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. Leman Biotech has also been successfully selected for the National Key Research and Development Program's "Disruptive Technology Innovation" key special project. Its clinical progress was featured in late-breaking oral presentations at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT 2024) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR 2024), making it the only company in China to achieve this distinction.

Addressing T-cell exhaustion, a key bottleneck limiting the efficacy and durability of cellular immunotherapies, Leman Biotech has developed the world's first IL-10-mediated immunometabolic reprogramming platform (META-10). This platform is based on the founding team's original discoveries in the field of immunometabolism. Leveraging this technology, Leman Biotech has built a fully integrated proprietary platform for the research, development, and manufacturing of novel immunocellular drugs.

Currently, multiple pipelines from Leman Biotech have entered investigator-initiated trials, with indications covering hematologic malignancies, solid tumors, and autoimmune diseases. This demonstrates Leman Biotech's commitment to efficiently translating cutting-edge research findings into clinical applications.

In the field of hematologic oncology, for indications such as relapsed/refractory lymphoma and leukemia, Leman Biotech's metabolically armored CD19 CAR-T therapy has achieved 100 percent complete response in over 20 patients using ultra-low doses as low as one-thousandth of the conventional dose. The treated subjects include highly challenging cases such as patients with central nervous system involvement and severely ill patients unable to move independently. Some of these results were published in the top-tier international journal The Lancet Haematology in October 2025.

In the field of autoimmune diseases, for patients with moderate to severe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the metabolically armored CD19 CAR-T therapy has also achieved ultra-low dosing (one-thousandth of the conventional dose) and made a major breakthrough of "lymphodepletion-free" — patients do not require lymphodepleting preconditioning prior to infusion, nor do they need to interrupt their existing treatments. Following a single infusion, patients can achieve DORIS remission (complete remission) with complete discontinuation of other medications. This approach significantly enhances the safety and accessibility of the treatment, potentially opening a new therapeutic pathway for SLE patients.

In the field of solid tumors, Leman Biotech's first solid tumor cell therapy pipeline, the metabolically armored tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte injection (META-10 TILs), has officially initiated investigator-initiated trial (IIT) clinical studies at the First Affiliated Hospital of the University of Science and Technology of China (Anhui Provincial Hospital) and the Cancer Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. These studies aim to evaluate its safety and preliminary efficacy in various advanced solid tumors, accelerating the pace of clinical exploration. Leman Biotech also has several additional solid tumor CAR-T pipelines entering the investigator-initiated trial (IIT) stage.

Furthermore, Leman Biotech is simultaneously advancing multiple investigational new drug applications in both China and the United States. Several reserve projects are also progressing efficiently, with the metabolically armored in vivo CAR-T platform entering a phase of rapid iteration. Concurrently, a prototype of its independently developed automated cell manufacturing system has been completed, marking a critical step for Leman Biotech towards scaled-up, low-cost, and highly consistent industrial production.

With the aforementioned disruptive technologies and clinical translation achievements, Leman Biotech participated in the National Finals of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Entrepreneurship Competition, co-hosted by multiple authorities including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People's Republic of China, the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, and the People's Government of Guangdong Province. Leman Biotech secured the Silver Award, receiving authoritative recognition of its innovative strength and development prospects.