NEW YORK – Hummingbird Bioscience said on Wednesday that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Chinese genomics firm Novogene to identify solid tumor patients in China that are eligible for Hummingbird's investigational HER3-directed antibody, HMBD-001.
The partnership will use Novogene's next-generation sequencing testing capabilities to identify cancer patients in China whose tumors harbor NRG1 fusions, potentially making them eligible to enroll in HMBD-001 clinical trials.
Following encouraging preclinical research, Hummingbird expects to begin Phase I trials of the anti-HER3 treatment in patients with solid tumors later this year. The company sees the partnership with Novogene as a key part of expanding its clinical program in China.
Going forward, Hummingbird hopes to build on its collaboration with Novogene to identify patients with other molecular biomarkers beyond NRG1 fusions. Late last year, Hummingbird also entered a collaboration with Tempus with a similar goal of identifying patients for the HMBD-001 trial.