Singapore-based biotech K2 Therapeutics secures US$50 million seed round; appoints Huang Ying as CEO

[SINGAPORE] Biotech company K2 Therapeutics announced on Tuesday (Aug 11) that it has secured a US$50 million seed round.

The Singapore-based company was founded by MPM BioImpact, a biotech investment firm. K2 Therapeutics’ business model is to identify and translate assets into medicines.

The initial US$50 million was seeded by MPM BioImpact to support the expansion of K2 Therapeutics’ portfolio and advancing its assets.

As discoveries are emerging from every corner of the world, there are opportunities in medicines that can improve and extend lives, said Ansbert Gadicke, chairman of K2 Therapeutics and managing partner of MPM BioImpact.

“K2 was founded to help unlock that potential, combining a global search for exceptional science with deep drug development expertise and the resources needed to translate innovation into impact for patients worldwide,” he said.

Separately, K2 Therapeutics has appointed the former CEO of Nasdaq-listed Legend Biotech, Huang Ying, as its new CEO.

His tenure at Legend Biotech included leading the development and commercialisation of cell therapies, as well as transforming Legend Biotech into a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company.

“At Legend Biotech, Ying led one of the most consequential success stories in modern biotechnology, transforming a China-originated innovation into a globally approved blockbuster therapy and helping reshape industry perceptions of where world-class innovation can emerge,” said Gadicke.

Huang also helped grow Legend Biotech from a Phase 1 clinical stage company to a biopharmaceutical company with more than 3,000 team members across the US, Europe and China. He was also previously a biotechnology equity analyst and head of biotech research at Merrill Lynch.

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“The experience taught me how to assemble and manage a capable management team, scale the clinical, manufacturing and commercial operations for a multibillon-dollar franchise, work closely with major pharma partners such as J&J (Johnson & Johnson) and Novartis, and prioritise resources to invest in cutting-edge science,” he told The Business Times.

The immediate focus for Huang is to raise a Series A round of funding to support development of four assets that K2 Therapeutics already has, as well as further business development transactions. There has been interest from healthcare funds, he noted.

K2 Therapeutics will also expand its business development, clinical and chemical, manufacturing and controls teams in Asia and the US to tap opportunities. The company will also continue to search for and evaluate potential assets to acquire and develop.

“We see lots of interesting innovations from the Apac region with novel mechanisms of action, improved safety and efficacy compared to existing standard of care, and ways of rapidly generating proof-of-concept data in patients in a capital-efficient manner,” said Huang.

There is intensifying competition in the biotech space, but Huang believes that K2 Therapeutics’ hub-and-spoke model should give it the edge. In this model, leadership and strategy is centralised, with development of the assets done in parallel.

“More importantly, we can tap into the MPM expert network with deep expertise and experience from all aspects of drug development,” he added.