Harbour BioMed, a global biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel antibody therapeutics in immunology and oncology, launched Élancé Therapeutics (Élancé). Using Harbour BioMed’s HCAb-based bispecific antibody technology, Élancé aims to develop innovative therapies addressing key challenges in current obesity treatment, including muscle preservation and long-term efficacy.

Élancé is building bispecific antibody programs to improve weight loss outcomes while preserving lean muscle mass. By integrating dual-targeting strategies with enhanced safety profiles, these therapies have the potential to complement and expand upon existing treatment options, including various agonists of the GLP-1 receptor, GIP receptor, and GCG receptor.

“Our bispecific antibody programs enable a new paradigm in obesity treatment by targeting multiple pathways in a precise and effective manner,” said Jingsong Wang, MD, PhD, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Harbour BioMed. “With a focus on optimizing weight loss efficacy, preserving lean muscle mass, and improving long-term outcomes, we believe our approach has the potential to redefine obesity therapeutics.”

Élancé’s pipeline includes multiple bispecific antibody programs in preclinical development, each designed to offer mechanisms of action, including targeted hormone modulation and metabolic regulation. 

Also, Élancé will refine and expand Nona Biosciences’ Hu-mAtrIx AI platform to support bispecific antibody discovery, with AI applications guiding antibody sequence discovery, enrichment, optimization, bispecific geometry design, and developability/ immunogenicity/ pharmacokinetics (PK) assessments, as well as patient biomarker studies.