On December 16, Gelonghui reported that HBM HOLDINGS-B (02142.HK) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Nona Biotechnology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. (Nona Biotechnology), has reached a research cooperation and licensing agreement with Candid Therapeutics, Inc. (Candid) to develop the next-generation T-cell connector. Under the terms of the agreement, Nona Biotechnology is entitled to receive an upfront payment and potential milestone payments of up to 0.32 billion USD. Candid will be responsible for all subsequent development work on the product.
Candid Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage Biotechnology company dedicated to becoming a leader in the development of T cell engagers (TCE) targeting the B cell depletion mechanism for autoimmune diseases. Candid is advancing two TCE candidate drugs based on the B cell depletion mechanism, aiming to widely explore the therapeutic potential of TCE in various autoimmune diseases by targeting different B cell protein targets and assessing different levels of B cell depletion. Candid was founded in 2024 and is headquartered in San Diego, California, USA, led by a team of successful entrepreneurs with deep expertise and rich project development experience, supported by a renowned team of investors in the life sciences field.