China-based AusperBio has completed a USD 120 million Series C financing led by a global strategic investor with new participation from RA Capital Management, and follow-on support from Hankang Capital, Sherpa Venture Capital, InnoPinnacle, Qiming Venture Partners, Yuanbio Venture Capital, and CDH Investments, lifting cumulative proceeds since 2023 to USD 360 million.

Proceeds will fund the Phase III registrational trial and commercialisation readiness of AHB-137, accelerate the siRNA candidate AHB-171 and next-generation combination strategies, and broaden the Med-Oligo ASO and Au-HALO liver-targeted delivery platforms, against a global chronic hepatitis B (CHB) burden of roughly 254 million infections and 1.1 million annual deaths where no finite-course cure exists under lifelong nucleos(t)ide analogue therapy.

AHB-137 is a non-conjugated antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) built on Med-Oligo that suppresses HBsAg production, inhibits HBV DNA replication, and promotes immune recovery, now in Phase III in China after global Phase I and multiple Phase II studies that showed up to 70% functional cure in treatment-naive patients with baseline HBsAg 100 to 1,000 IU/mL. AHB-171, the first clinical candidate from the Au-HALO galNAc-style hepatic delivery system, is an siRNA against HBV transcripts dosed in a first patient in 2026, positioning AusperBio to assemble ASO-plus-siRNA combination regimens analogous to GSK's bepirovirsen strategy but with a dual-modality house platform.

The raise arrives as GSK's bepirovirsen approval in Japan reframes HBV functional cure from concept to registrable category.