VMS invested company – Chime Biologics (“Chime”), a world-class contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) company has entered into a manufacturing services agreement with Humanigen, Inc. (Nasdaq:HGEN) (“Humanigen”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on preventing and treating an immune hyper-response called ‘cytokine storm’ with its lead drug candidate, lenzilumab™.

Following the recent result announcement from the LIVE-AIR Phase 3 clinical trial of lenzilumab™, Humanigen formed a partnership with Chime to produce lenzilumab™ bulk drug substance and drug product for commercial sale after receipt of the requisite regulatory authorizations or approvals in regions outside of the United States including Europe, the United Kingdom, India and Brazil.

Under the terms of the agreement, Chime will use its state-of-the-art modular single use KuBio (Cytiva) biologics facility in China for the manufacturing. The cell culture capacity at the facility is 24,000L with a plan for expansion to 140,000L. Chime would commit at least 56,000L for the production of Humanigen annually. Technical competences transfer has already started and the product will start commercialization in 2022.

Chime has developed and produced more than 30 products and supplied to over 20 countries from its latest generation single use facility since 2013. This significant contract win with Humanigen is a further testiment to validate Chime’s commitment on quality, compliance, bioprocessing expertise and cost effectiveness.

VMS invested in Chime’s series A funding round of US$ 125mil in February 2020 and then led its US$ 190mil series A+ fund round in March 2021, followed by participations from Fidelity International and Panacea Venture. We are delighted that Chime has been selected by Humanigen as its first foreign CDMO to manufacture lenzilumab™ ex-US in the united fight against COVID-19. We are firmly confident about Chime’s growth outlook and believe its market share in the CDMO arena will continue to increase in China as well as globally.

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