Qiming Venture Partners' portfolio company Connect Biopharma today listed on the Nasdaq with the stock code "CNTB". The issue price is US$17.00/ADS. The stock opened at US$19.55/ADS and closed at US$18.49/ADS on the first trading day, up 8.8%, with a market cap of about US$1 billion.
Qiming is the largest professional VC investor of Connect Biopharma, with an ownership of 10.9% before the company's IPO. Qiming Principal Dr. Kan Chen serves on the board of directors. Qiming was the lead investor of the company's Series A funding round and participated in Series B and Series C.
The listing of Connect Biopharma is the third IPO in the Qiming portfolio in 2021.
Founded in 2012, Connect Biopharma is a global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing therapies for the treatment of T cell-driven inflammatory diseases. The company is committed to providing new drugs with better curative effects and fewer side effects both in China and globally. The company established a high-through put drug screening platform based on T cell immune regulation. Compared with traditional approaches, the platform directly screens molecules with functional assays, which could lead to more rapid identification of relevant molecules and avoids eliminating attractive molecules.
Connect Biopharma’s two most advanced clinical-stage programs include potential Best-in-Class innovative drugs: CBP-201 (a lead product candidate which is avalidated target for the treatment of inflammatory diseases) and CBP-307 (a candidate for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD). The company is also advancing three pre-clinical projects for severe inflammatory diseases treatment, including two small molecule drug candidates (CBP-174 and CBP-312) and an IL-33-targeted antibody (CBP-233). Connect Biopharma owns global rights to all new drug products in the pipeline.
Dr.Pan Wubin, Co-founder and Chairman of Connect Biopharma, said that the company is committed to discovering and developing new drugs targeting inflammatory diseases with significant unmet medical needs and improving patients' quality of life. The company aimed to become a global leader in drug R&D in autoimmune diseases and inflammatory diseases.
William Hu, Managing Partner at Qiming Venture Partners, said that we invested in the world's top scientists who are expected to develop globally competitive products. As the company goes public, we look forward to seeing the company becoming a global leading biotech firm in the autoimmunity field. We expect it to complete high-quality clinical research, market its products globally, and address unmet needs.
