Caris Life Sciences and Hummingbird Bioscience Enter Into Collaboration to Advance Clinical Development of Anti-HER3 Therapy

Collaboration to leverage Caris' comprehensive (WES/WTS) molecular profiling technologies and large clinico-genomic database to elucidate biomarkers associated with response to HMBD-001, with the goal to increase the probability of clinical success

IRVING, Texas and SINGAPORE, Dec. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Caris Life Sciences®(Caris), the leading molecular science and technology company actively developing and delivering innovative solutions to revolutionize healthcare, and Hummingbird Bioscience, a data-driven precision biotherapeutics company discovering and developing transformative biologic medicines for hard-to-treat diseases, today announced a strategic collaboration to advance clinical development of Hummingbird Bioscience's anti-HER3 therapy, HMBD-001.

Hummingbird Bioscience, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, uses their proprietary and differentiated technologies to drug clinically-validated targets which have previously been elusive. Their most advanced program, HMBD-001, is a HER3 antibody that uniquely targets an epitope on the critical dimerization interface. HER3 is a member of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family, known to be important in tumor progression and metastasis. Unlike earlier generations of HER3 antibodies, HMBD-001 blocks both ligand-dependent and ligand-independent signaling, eliciting potent anti-tumor effects. Leveraging Caris' extensive real-world clinico-genomic database to support clinical trial design, Hummingbird Bioscience will be better able to prospectively identify patients with molecular biomarkers that are potentially associated with response to HMBD-001.

"Caris' partnership with Hummingbird Bioscience aligns with our goal of leveraging molecular and clinical data to power and accelerate the development of precision therapies," said Brian Lamon, Ph.D., Chief Business Officer at Caris Life Sciences. "Our partnership will help evaluate biomarkers to better understand the clinical utility for this novel therapy, drive patient recruitment and clinical trial access, and may ultimately provide new treatment alternatives and options to patients who are not responding to current therapies."

"With our proprietary technologies, Hummingbird Bioscience discovers and develops unique biotherapeutics against challenging oncology and autoimmune targets. To ensure that these novel therapies succeed, we must conduct intelligent and focused clinical trials on patients who are likely to benefit the most," said Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder at Hummingbird Bioscience. "As a data-driven company, we understand the value of using large cohorts of molecular and clinical information to gain a deeper understanding of the patients who may respond to this exciting new therapy and track their response. We are excited by the potential of this partnership, and we look forward to better, more efficient clinical development with access to Caris' vast amount of real-world data and state-of-the-art comprehensive profiling technologies."

Since the launch of its molecular profiling service in 2009, Caris has amassed molecular data on more than 400,000 patients and real-world clinical outcomes on more than 275,000 patients. Caris' state-of-the-art sequencing laboratories are among the most advanced in the world, which allows the company to perform whole exome DNA sequencing and whole transcriptome RNA sequencing on every patient. Caris' data-driven, molecular insights are changing the landscape of precision medicine with actionable insights from retrospective, epidemiologic and real-time molecular data to enhance research and commercial activities.

Caris Life Sciences^® (Caris) is the leading molecular science and technology company actively developing and delivering innovative solutions to revolutionize healthcare and improve patient outcomes. Through comprehensive molecular profiling (Whole Exome and Whole Transcriptome Sequencing) and the application of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms, Caris has created the large-scale clinico-genomic database and cognitive computing needed to analyze and unravel the molecular complexity of disease. This information provides an unmatched resource and the ideal path forward to conduct the basic, fundamental research to accelerate discovery for detection, diagnosis, monitoring, therapy selection and drug development to improve the human condition.

With a primary focus on cancer, Caris' suite of market-leading molecular profiling offerings assesses DNA, RNA and proteins to reveal a molecular blueprint that helps patients, physicians and researchers better detect, diagnose and treat patients. Caris' latest advancement, which is currently available within its Precision Oncology Alliance, is a blood-based, circulating nucleic acids sequencing (cNAS) assay that combines comprehensive molecular analysis (Whole Exome and Whole Transcriptome Sequencing from blood) and serial monitoring ? making it the most powerful liquid biopsy assay ever developed.

Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Caris has offices in Phoenix, New York, Denver, Tokyo, Japan and Basel, Switzerland. Caris provides services throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and other international markets. To learn more, please visit CarisLifeSciences.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Hummingbird Bioscience is a data-driven precision biotherapeutics company discovering and developing transformative biologic medicines for hard-to-treat diseases. The Hummingbird Bioscience model combines computational and systems biology with wet lab drug discovery in a multi-disciplinary, collaborative environment spanning initial discovery through clinical development. We harness this integrated approach across target identification and patient selection, enabling our team to increase the efficiency of translating novel scientific insights while reducing the inherent risk in drug discovery and development. We are currently developing two clinical-stage assets: HMBD-001, a humanized anti-HER3 monoclonal antibody targeting a novel epitope on HER3, and HMBD-002, a humanized anti-VISTA IgG4 monoclonal antibody. Both programs are currently in Phase 1 studies. At Hummingbird Bioscience, our commitment to rigorous science, teamwork and intellectual integrity underpins our passion to accelerate the journey of new drugs from concept to clinic. 

For more information, please visit www.hummingbirdbioscience.com, and follow Hummingbird Bioscience on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

HMBD-001 is a clinical-stage IgG1 antibody designed to target HER3. Discovered using Hummingbird Bioscience's proprietary Rational Antibody Discovery (RAD) platform, HMBD-001 is now in development for the treatment of multiple solid tumors. We believe HMBD-001 is the only anti-HER3 antibody in development that has the potential to fully block both ligand-dependent and -independent HER3 activation and oncogenic signaling, by targeting a key epitope located at the interface where HER3 forms heterodimers with HER2 or EGFR. In preclinical models evaluating HMBD-001, the company has observed superior affinity and more potent tumor growth inhibition compared to existing anti-HER3 antibodies. Near-term development plans for HMBD-001 focus on a few priority, high-value indications with strong scientific rationale and supporting preclinical data, which includes HER3-driven cancers and NRG1 fusion-driven cancers.

Caris Life Sciences Media Contact: 
Lisa Burgner
[email protected]
214.294.5606

Caris Life Sciences Business Development Contact:
Brian Lamon, Ph.D.
Chief Business Officer, Head of BioPharma Business Development
[email protected]
609.955.8883

Hummingbird Bioscience Media Contact:
[email protected] or
Carolyn Hawley
Evoke Canale
[email protected] 

Hummingbird Bioscience Investor contact:
[email protected] or
Maureen McEnroe, CFA
Evoke Canale
[email protected]

SOURCE Caris Life Sciences