Xinhe Biologics Secures RMB 250 Million Series A Financing Led by Kunlun Capital to Advance RNA Therapeutics Pipeline

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that Shenzhen Xinhe Biomedical Technology Co., Ltd. (“Xinhe Bio”), one of the few innovative high-tech enterprises in China dedicated to R&D of RNA platform-based therapeutics, recently announced the completion of a RMB 250 million Series A financing round. The round was led by Kunlun Capital, with participation from IDG Capital and existing investor Yahui Capital.

It is reported that Xinhe Bio, established in 2017, is dedicated to building a multi-omics big data collection platform and a multi-omics biological database. By leveraging core technologies in artificial intelligence (AI) and bioinformatics, the company conducts in-depth drug target mining and fully automated drug design to support the R&D of innovative clinical RNA therapeutics and the next generation of safe, efficient, and precise clinical diagnostics and treatments. It provides patients with one-stop, full-cycle services spanning screening, diagnosis, treatment, and efficacy monitoring. The company’s R&D pipeline covers numerous indications, including tumor immunotherapy, vaccines, rare diseases, and metabolism-related disorders.Xinhe Bio has assembled a team of top-tier global scientists, seasoned industry experts, and international academic advisors. Its core R&D team comprises more than 50 members, including dozens of PhDs and postdoctoral fellows from prestigious institutions such as Harvard University, Cornell University, Carnegie Mellon University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Team members have previously held key R&D positions at leading international research institutions and companies, including Harvard Medical School, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Allen Institute. They have published hundreds of articles in top-tier scientific journals. Their expertise spans gene testing, AI algorithms, bioinformatics, tumor immunotherapy, and vaccine development. Moreover, many team members possess extensive experience in clinical translation, having overseen end-to-end processes—including drug manufacturing, clinical trials, and regulatory registration—at several well-known pharmaceutical companies.

Since its inception, Xinhe Biologics has focused on the development of tumor immunology-related technologies and clinical exploration. With advances in disciplines such as tumor immunology and molecular biology, immunotherapy—which inhibits and destroys tumor cells by mobilizing or stimulating the body’s own immune functions—has become a new hotspot in the field of malignant tumor treatment in recent years. Among these approaches, tumor neoantigen vaccines have attracted widespread attention in the industry due to their high clinical safety profile and their ability to induce highly efficient and specific anti-tumor immune responses. The underlying concept involves using high-throughput genomic sequencing and artificial intelligence algorithms to predict and screen non-self antigen fragments from tumor-specific mutations that are most likely to be efficiently bound, presented by patient tumor cells, and capable of triggering an immune response. Corresponding RNA encoding these antigens is synthesized in vitro to formulate vaccine products for patient treatment. Summarizing and extracting public neoantigens from personalized tumor neoantigens represents another area with significant application potential in current tumor neoantigen vaccines and related immunotherapies. Through large-scale collection, sequencing, neoantigen prediction, and data analysis of clinical samples from tumor patients, combinations of multiple neoantigens with high frequency and broad coverage can be identified to establish tumor public neoantigen libraries tailored to specific cancer types. This approach can significantly reduce the cost of neoantigen vaccine therapy and shorten preparation time, enabling more patients to benefit from neoantigen immunotherapy.

When discussing the company’s core strengths, Dr. Wang Yi, Founder of Xinhe Bio, stated, “The accuracy of neoantigen prediction and the safety and efficacy of vaccine delivery platforms are the primary determinants of therapeutic outcomes for tumor neoantigen therapies, as well as the major technical challenges.” To overcome the technological barriers in industry development, Xinhe Bio has leveraged its expertise in RNA drug R&D and its multi-platform innovative technological advantages to rapidly establish an ultra-sensitive molecular detection platform for comprehensive patient data collection; independently develop proprietary AI algorithms and bioinformatics platforms; and create a safe and efficient RNA drug delivery platform. The integration of these three platforms drives the clinical research of neoantigen vaccines. Notably, the company’s independently developed and proprietary ALPINE tumor neoantigen prediction platform achieves over 30% higher prediction accuracy compared to other public algorithms. The self-constructed MATHLA model significantly outperforms the academically widely used netMHCpan 4.0 and MHCflurry models in predicting peptide binding profiles for HLA alleles. Furthermore, the high-throughput, high-sensitivity platform for assessing tumor neoantigen immunogenicity ensures validation of immunogenicity feedback and real-time monitoring of patient immune responses. These capabilities form the foundation for Xinhe Bio’s application of next-generation precision medicine technologies, iterative algorithm optimization, efficient drug development, and ultimately, the provision of one-stop, full-cycle services to patients.

Xinhe Biologics is conducting exploratory clinical trials in patients with intermediate to advanced-stage tumors to evaluate the overall safety and tolerability of its neoantigen vaccines, the immunogenicity of predicted neoantigens, and the clinical efficacy of this therapeutic approach. Meanwhile, these clinical trials will also explore the feasibility and efficacy of neoantigen vaccines across multiple types of solid tumors, in diverse clinical scenarios, and in combination with other drug regimens. In addition to personalized tumor neoantigen vaccine immunotherapy, Xinhe Biologics is simultaneously advancing public neoantigen projects targeting high-incidence cancers such as gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, lung cancer, and liver cancer. By performing large-scale gene sequencing on patient samples, predicting neoantigens, and validating their immunogenicity, the company is establishing a database of shared tumor neoantigens. To date, Xinhe Biologics has completed the screening of high-frequency shared neoantigens for gastric cancer, along with immunogenicity testing and retrospective clinical validation. In vivo safety evaluation studies and pharmacodynamic experiments are also progressing rapidly.

Currently, Xinhe Bio has established an RNA drug R&D center in Beijing, an AI bioinformatics research laboratory in Shenzhen, and a GMP production facility in Guangzhou. The company has also partnered with dozens of hospitals across China to vigorously advance the development and clinical progress of tumor neoantigen vaccine immunotherapy and RNA-based therapeutics both domestically and internationally. Regarding this round of financing, Dr. Wang Yi stated, “This funding will help Xinhe Bio accelerate the construction of its GMP facility, enhance the accumulation of real-world data on tumor neoantigens, and expand the exploration of clinical protocols for cancer immunotherapy. It will also support Investigational New Drug (IND) applications for multiple RNA drug candidates in our pipeline, while facilitating the rapid expansion of our innovative product portfolio. Ultimately, this will contribute to technological breakthroughs in the global RNA pharmaceutical supply chain and promote the clinical adoption of cancer immunotherapies.”