Partnership will enhance biomarker-driven patient enrollment in clinical trials of Hummingbird Bioscience's lead program, HMBD-001

Hummingbird Bioscience, an innovative clinical-stage biotech company focused on developing precision therapies against hard-to-drug targets, today announced a strategic partnership with Asian genomic sequencing and bioinformatics company, Novogene Co., Ltd. ("Novogene"). The partnership will leverage Novogene's strong molecular diagnostics capabilities to expand patient identification through Next Generation Sequencing, NGS, testing in China to support the development of Hummingbird Bioscience's investigational drug candidate HMBD-001, an anti-HER3 antibody that will be evaluated for treatment of multiple tumor types, including NRG1-fusion driven cancers. HMBD-001 is expected to enter phase 1 clinical trials later this year.

While rare, occurring in less than 0.5% of all solid tumors^[1], NRG1-fusions are increasingly recognized as an actionable oncogenic driver that may potentially be addressed through effective HER3 inhibition. The partnership will focus on validation and expansion of clinical-grade testing for NRG1 fusions in key patient populations with selected solid tumors.

"Biomarker-driven, precision clinical trials are critical to successful drug development, increasing both the probability of technical success, and ensuring that patients who enroll in trials are likely to benefit. The collaboration with Novogene will allow us to create testing options for patients with NRG1-fusions, as well as providing greater awareness as we expand our clinical program into China," said Piers Ingram, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Hummingbird Bioscience. "We look forward to building on our collaboration with Novogene to expand diagnostic options beyond NRG1-fusions into other molecular biomarkers."

"'Finding the right drug for the right patient' is the essense of precision medicine. Hummingbird Bioscience's HMBD-001 is a perfect example of such efforts and we are excited to commence this collaboration," said Dr. Jeff Cheng, Chief Scientific Officer of Novogene. "With our solid technical capabilities, rich experience of developing molecular diagnostics and strong presence in the domestic clinical testing sector, we believe we can help significantly accelerate clinical development of this potential best-in-class molecule in China."