In return for the ex-China rights to CLYM116, Climb agreed to hand over $9 million in upfront cash plus an undisclosed amount in potential milestones.\n Eliem Therapeutics is continuing its transformation into an immune-mediated disease company by paying $9 million to license a Chinese biotech’s IgA nephropathy antibody.Last October, Eliem metamorphized into Climb Bio after giving up on its pain, depression and epilepsy candidates one by one over the previous two years. Until today, Climb’s remaining portfolio had consisted of budoprutug, an anti-CD19 monoclonal antibody designed to deplete CD19-positive B cells. Eliem had picked up the drug from its acquisition of Tenet Medicines earlier in 2024.Today’s deal with Beijing Mabworks Biotech brings an additional asset in the form of MIL116, to be rebranded as CLYM116. Climb believes that the preclinical anti-APRIL (A PRoliferation-Inducing Ligand) monoclonal antibody can offer a “potential best-in-class approach to address a significant unmet need in patients with IgA nephropathy and other B-cell mediated diseases.”The idea is that the Fc-engineered antibody can address the limitations of other APRIL-targeted therapeutics currently in development by blocking binding of the ligand to its receptors. This means the candidate has the potential to offer more rapid and durable inhibition of APRIL signaling and IgA depletion, according to the biotech.“IgA nephropathy is the most common cause of glomerulonephritis worldwide, and we believe that inhibition of APRIL is both a clinically validated mechanism and potentially disease-modifying approach for this indication,” Climb’s CEO Aoife Brennan said in the Jan. 9 release. “We look forward to rapidly advancing CLYM116 and sharing initial preclinical data later in 2025.”In return for the ex-China rights to CLYM116, Climb agreed to hand over $9 million in upfront cash plus an undisclosed amount in potential milestones.“CLYM116 has been specifically designed to meet the needs of patients with IgA nephropathy and has shown promising data in several preclinical models,” Mabworks chairman and general manager Feng Li said in the Jan. 9 release. “We are thrilled to partner with Climb Bio, given their focus on immune-mediated diseases, and leverage the capabilities and expertise of both organizations to advance this program to clinical trials as expeditiously as possible.” Climb entered 2025 with $212.9 million in cash and equivalents, which it said today would be enough to fund the development of both CLYM116 and budoprutug into 2027.