After Ally Bridge-backed series A, Shanghai's GenFleet looks to clinic

With eight preclinical candidates and an experienced management team, immunology company GenFleet Therapeutics Co. Ltd. (Shanghai, China) raised RMB120 million ($17.4 million) in an untranched series A round to bring its first therapy into clinic next year.

Ally Bridge Group led the round, which saw participation from Sinopharm Capital and CSPC, and existing investors HighLight Capital, Qian Long Yu Han and TF Capital.

GenFleet's most advanced compound, GFH018, is a small molecule inhibitor of transforming growth factor β receptor 1 (TGFβR1; ALK5). The therapy is being developed for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and other "China-prevalent" cancers, co-founder and Chairman Qiang Lu told BioCentury. A first-in-human trial...