Hinge Bio Partners With Kyorin Pharmaceutical In Japan to Develop And Commercialize HB2198 For Autoimmune Diseases

Hinge Bio, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company focused on developing innovative medicines, announced that it has entered into a collaboration and license agreement with Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Kyorin) for the development of Hinge Bio’s multispecific antibody-based therapeutic candidate HB2198 in Japan. The collaboration will initially target systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and may expand to include additional autoimmune indications.

Under the terms of the agreement, Hinge Bio will receive an upfront payment of $10 million and is eligible for milestone payments of up to $95 million tied to the SLE program, along with additional milestone payments for other autoimmune indications. Hinge Bio will lead the global development of HB2198, while Kyorin will be responsible for funding development, regulatory submissions, commercialization, and marketing activities in Japan. Kyorin will also contribute a portion of the investment toward the global development program. To support and coordinate efforts, the companies have established a Joint Steering Committee (JSC) that will oversee the progress of HB2198 and explore opportunities to expand its development across multiple B cell-mediated autoimmune disorders.

Barry Selick, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, “Hinge Bio is committed to developing life-changing medicines for patients with intractable diseases, driven by our proprietary GEM-DIMER platform. We are thrilled to establish this validating collaboration with Kyorin to accelerate and broaden development of HB2198 in Japan for multiple autoimmune indications, beginning with SLE.”

“Our company is focused on autoimmune disorders as one of our key strategic therapeutic areas for research and development. We anticipate that this innovative treatment candidate, developed through our collaboration with Hinge Bio, will offer a new therapeutic option for patients suffering from autoimmune disorders.” mentioned Yutaka Ogihara, President and CEO of KYORIN Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

HB2198 is the lead candidate from Hinge Bio’s GEM-DIMER™ platform and is expected to enter clinical development in the second half of 2025. The investigational therapy is designed to treat B cell-mediated autoimmune conditions by simultaneously targeting CD19 and CD20 with enhanced natural killer cell engagement. In preclinical in vivo studies, HB2198 has demonstrated more rapid and deeper B cell depletion compared to other antibody-based therapies. Its therapeutic goal is to reset the immune system by achieving profound B cell depletion in both circulating blood and lymphoid tissues. Being an off-the-shelf antibody-based therapy, HB2198 is also intended to provide advantages in terms of accessibility, cost, convenience, and safety.