A clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company trying to turn a lifelong infection into a curable one - starting with chronic hepatitis B.
AusperBio's logo, photographed against studio white. Behind the mark sits a nine-person team, a proprietary antisense platform, and one candidate - AHB-137 - carrying the weight of a Phase III program across two continents.
For most of the 296 million people living with chronic hepatitis B, the disease is a life sentence rather than a curable illness. Antiviral drugs can suppress the virus and keep it in check, but they rarely clear it. Stop taking them, and it tends to come back. AusperBio, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in San Mateo, California, was founded in 2019 on a more ambitious premise: that hepatitis B can be functionally cured, not merely managed.
The company works in antisense oligonucleotides - short, engineered strands of genetic material designed to silence specific instructions inside a cell. Its proprietary Med-Oligo ASO platform pairs a set of design insights with targeted delivery technology, and it is the engine behind everything AusperBio does. The lead product built on that platform, AHB-137, is an unconjugated, dual-mechanism antisense oligonucleotide developed specifically to push chronic hepatitis B toward a functional cure.
That candidate has moved quickly. AHB-137 completed a global Phase I trial, advanced through Phase II studies, and in 2025 received clearance from China's Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) to begin a Phase III pivotal trial. Along the way, the company reported that AHB-137 monotherapy achieved a 30% functional cure rate at Week 72 in a defined subset of patients - those who were HBe-negative with a baseline HBsAg between 100 and 1,000 IU/mL, on stable nucleos(t)ide analogue therapy. In a field where a durable cure has been elusive for decades, that is a number worth pausing on.
"The financing positions us to accelerate the pivotal development of AHB-137, expand our global clinical footprint, and strengthen our platform and pipeline." Dr. Guofeng Cheng, Co-Founder & CEO
Chronic hepatitis B is one of the world's most persistent viral infections. It is a leading driver of cirrhosis and liver cancer, and it hides inside liver cells in a form that standard antivirals struggle to reach. Existing therapies - largely nucleos(t)ide analogues - keep the virus suppressed but do not eliminate it, so most patients stay on treatment indefinitely.
A "functional cure" is the field's benchmark: sustained loss of the surface antigen (HBsAg) after a finite course of treatment, without the virus rebounding. It is hard to reach because it requires both knocking the virus down and letting the immune system re-engage.
AusperBio's answer, AHB-137, is designed to work on two fronts at once - suppressing the viral machinery while helping restore immune function - which is the logic behind describing it as a dual-mechanism ASO.
A novel unconjugated, dual-mechanism antisense oligonucleotide for chronic hepatitis B. It completed a global Phase I trial, advanced through Phase II, and received China CDE clearance for Phase III. Early data showed a 30% functional cure rate in a defined patient subset.
AusperBio's proprietary antisense oligonucleotide platform, combining novel ASO design with targeted delivery. It is built to enhance ASO efficacy and, over time, extend beyond hepatitis B to metabolic conditions, genetic disorders, and immune diseases.
AusperBio raised three financings in roughly twelve months, backed by a syndicate of venture and strategic investors. Bars are scaled to round size.
Investors across the rounds include Qiming Venture Partners, CDH Investments, HanKang Capital, YuanBio Venture Capital, Sherpa Capital, and Genesis Capital. Cumulative funding reported to date exceeds $200 million.
AusperBio was co-founded in 2019 by Dr. Guofeng Cheng, who serves as CEO, and Dr. Chris Yang, its Chief Scientific Officer. It is a lean, science-first team - around nine employees on record - operating across the United States and China. Its legal presence in China trades as Hangzhou Haobo Pharmaceutical, reflecting a genuinely cross-border structure rather than a single-market startup.
The business model is the familiar one for clinical-stage biotech: raise venture capital, advance proprietary drug candidates through clinical milestones, and create value through those milestones, potential partnerships or licensing, and eventual commercialization. There is no approved product or product revenue yet - the asset is the pipeline.
Who it ultimately serves: patients with chronic hepatitis B and the clinicians who treat them. In the near term, its stakeholders are trial investigators, regulators such as China's CDE, and prospective pharmaceutical partners.
Where it fits: AusperBio sits in the competitive race for a hepatitis B functional cure, alongside larger programs from companies exploring ASO and siRNA approaches - names like GSK, Vir Biotechnology, Arbutus, and Assembly Biosciences - and within the broader oligonucleotide field pioneered by Ionis and Alnylam. Its differentiator is the combination of an unconjugated, dual-mechanism candidate and a US-China clinical footprint that lets it move on two regulatory tracks.
Guofeng Cheng and Chris Yang co-found the company to develop ASO therapies focused on hepatitis B.
The company secures Series B financing to advance AHB-137 toward a functional cure for chronic hepatitis B.
Late-breaking Phase IIb AHB-137 data presented at EASL Congress 2025; a $50 million Series B+ round follows.
China's CDE clears AHB-137 for Phase III; AusperBio raises a further $63 million and reports a 30% functional cure rate in a patient subset.
It is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapies aimed at a functional cure for chronic hepatitis B, built on its proprietary Med-Oligo platform.
AHB-137 is AusperBio's lead drug candidate - an unconjugated, dual-mechanism antisense oligonucleotide for chronic hepatitis B that has received China CDE clearance to enter Phase III trials.
AusperBio is headquartered in San Mateo, California, and operates across both the United States and China.
The company has raised more than $200 million in total, including a $73M Series B (2024), a $50M Series B+ (2025), and a $63M Series B2 (2025).
AusperBio was co-founded in 2019 by Dr. Guofeng Cheng, who serves as CEO, and Dr. Chris Yang, who serves as Chief Scientific Officer.
Profile compiled from public sources including company releases and press coverage.
Clinical figures (including the 30% functional cure rate) refer to specific patient subsets and are approximate as reported. Not medical advice.