Nona Biosciences

What Nona Biosciences does

Nona Biosciences is a global biotechnology company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with operations in the United States and China, operating as a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Harbour BioMed (HKEX: 02142). The company provides an integrated antibody discovery and development platform built on two proprietary transgenic mouse foundations — Harbour Mice® HCAb (the world's first clinically validated fully human heavy chain-only antibody platform, producing ~15 kDa VH domains) and Harbour Mice® H2L2 (fully human IgG) — augmented by the AI-driven Hu-mAtrIx™ discovery engine, CAR-based functional screening (NonaCarFx™), HBICE® bispecific/multispecific engineering, and adjacent capabilities in ADC linker design, mRNA-LNP delivery, blood-brain barrier shuttles, TCR-mimic antibodies, siRNA, and antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates. Across 380+ completed projects and 20+ clinical/IND-stage programs, these platforms serve global biopharmaceutical companies, emerging biotechs, and academic institutions.

Nona monetizes through a partner-centric business model combining platform-based research collaborations (recurring revenue with upfronts and research fees), non-exclusive and exclusive licensing agreements (upfronts, milestones, royalties) with partners such as Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Otsuka, and Windward Bio, and milestone payments tied to IND filings, clinical progression, and approvals. The company complements this with fee-for-service integrated discovery work spanning engineering, developability, CMC, and toxicology, and positions the 'I-to-I' (Idea to IND) framework as a bundled end-to-end offering that reduces multi-vendor handoff friction. The commercial motion is sales-led and direct, supported by scientific publications, conference presence (e.g., ASH), and content marketing, with bespoke B2B contracts and undisclosed pricing. In FY2025, the parent attributed meaningful revenue and profit growth (consolidated revenue ~$158M, +314.6% YoY) to Nona's platform collaborations and milestone inflows.

Name

Nona Biosciences

Legal name

Nona Biosciences

Website

https://nonabio.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Nona Biosciences is a Cambridge, MA-based biotechnology subsidiary of Harbour BioMed that operates an integrated antibody discovery and development platform built on proprietary Harbour Mice® transgenic platforms, the AI-driven Hu-mAtrIx™ engine, and an I-to-I® framework serving global pharma, biotechs, and academic partners via licensing, collaborations, and milestone-based contracts.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Biologics Discovery Services

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Biological Products, (No Disgnostic Substances) (2836)

akta.pro primary industry

Antibody Discovery & Engineering Platforms (display tech, bispecifics, Fc engineering) (HLAAAIAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

AI/ML-Enabled Biologic Discovery Platforms (computational design, in silico screening) (HLAAAIAE), Engineered Protein Therapeutics (de novo/AI-designed proteins, novel scaffolds) (HLAAAAAJ)

Keywords

• Antibody discovery services
• Transgenic mouse platforms
• Bispecific antibody engineering
• Antibody drug conjugates
• CAR-based cell therapy

Headquarters

HQ city

Cambridge

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Platform-based Research Collaborations: Recurring revenue from long-term strategic collaborations with multinational pharmaceutical companies including AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb, involving platform access and joint discovery programs. Revenue flows include upfront payments, ongoing research fees, and milestone payments tied to program progression.
2. Global Licensing Agreements: Non-exclusive and exclusive licensing agreements with pharmaceutical partners such as Pfizer, Otsuka, and Windward Bio involving upfront payments, milestone inflows, and potential royalty streams on downstream development and commercialization.
3. Milestone Payments: Time-bound milestone payments triggered by achievement of research, development, regulatory, and commercial milestones across partnered programs, including IND filings, clinical trial phases, and approvals. Harbour BioMed disclosed milestone inflows from Pfizer in 2025.
4. Integrated Discovery Services: Fee-for-service model covering end-to-end discovery and development capabilities including antibody discovery, engineering, CAR-based functional screening, CMC, and toxicology services for biopharmaceutical partners.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Nona Biosciences is a biotechnology company that provides fully human antibody discovery and development services built on its proprietary Harbour Mice HCAb and H2L2 transgenic mouse platforms and the AI-driven Hu-mAtrIx discovery engine. The company offers an integrated "Idea to IND" (I-to-I) service framework spanning antibody discovery, engineering, functional screening, developability assessment, toxicology, and CMC, supporting modalities including bispecifics, ADCs, CAR-based cell therapies, mRNA-LNP delivery, blood-brain barrier delivery, TCR-mimic antibodies, siRNA, and antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates for biopharmaceutical and biotech partners.

Product overview

Nona Biosciences offers a comprehensive integrated antibody discovery and development ecosystem built around its proprietary Harbour Mice® platforms. The portfolio centers on HCAb Harbour Mice® (generating fully human heavy chain-only antibodies) and H2L2 Harbour Mice® (generating conventional fully human antibodies), which serve as the foundation for multiple technology layers including the AI-driven Hu-mAtrIx™ platform for prediction and optimization, and specialized screening technologies such as NonaCarFx™ for functional CAR screening, NonaHCAbFx™ for HCAb screening, and Beacon Single B Cell Screening. The company provides modular therapeutic modality development through HBICE® (bispecific/multispecific antibodies), ADC Development (with novel tumor microenvironment-cleavable linkers), CAR-based Cell Therapy platforms (NonaCAR™ and NonaCARFx™), mRNA-LNP Delivery, Blood Brain Barrier Delivery, TCR Mimic Antibodies, siRNA Discovery, and Antibody-Oligonucleotide Conjugates. Nona's services span the complete I-to-I® pathway from Idea to IND, encompassing antibody discovery, engineering, screening, toxicology and safety assessment, and CMC solutions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Harbour Mice HCAb Platform Transgenic mouse platform that generates fully human heavy chain-only antibodies (HCAbs) without light chains, enabling isolation of compact, modular VH domains for biotherapeutic development across modalities including bispecifics, CAR-T, ADC, mRNA, and diagnostic imaging. Licensed and accessed by biopharmaceutical and biotech partners.
• Harbour Mice H2L2 Platform Transgenic mouse platform bearing fully human immunoglobulin genes with robust B cell development and antibody maturation, generating conventional fully human IgG antibodies for therapeutic programs. Licensed and accessed by partners for antibody discovery campaigns.
• Hu-mAtrIx AI Platform AI-powered analytics platform integrated into Harbour Mice antibody discovery workflows, applying machine learning models for binding prediction, developability assessment (aggregation, solubility, thermal stability, expression yield), affinity ranking, immunogenicity risk, and sequence diversification. Built on millions of proprietary fully human HCAb and H2L2 sequences with closed-loop experimental validation.
• NonaCarFx CAR-based Functional Screening Activity-based functional screening technology for identifying optimal CAR binders and evaluating CAR constructs in high-throughput format. Enables functional screening of antibody candidates in full CAR format to identify binders with optimal signaling, expression, and cytotoxicity properties for cell therapy development.
• HBICE Bispecific/Multispecific Engineering Platform Plug-and-play immune cell engager engineering platform for developing bi-specific and multi-specific antibody therapeutics with optimized format design for T cell engagement and tumor targeting. Used to engineer bispecifics and multispecifics based on Harbour Mice antibodies.
• NonaCAR Platform CAR platform utilizing fully human HCAb VH domain binders optimized for CAR signaling, supporting CAR-T, CAR-NK, CAR-M, and in vivo CAR strategies with compact, stable, and highly expressible binders.
• NonaHCAbFx HCAb Functional Screening HCAb functional screening platform enabling rapid identification and validation of fully human VH binders in CAR and other therapeutic formats.
• ADC Development and Linker-Payload Innovation Antibody-drug conjugate engineering platform featuring customized linker-drug design for tumor microenvironment-specific payload release, including enzyme-cleavable linkers with strong in vitro and in vivo stability.
• Modalities-on-Demand Integrated capability enabling selection and development across multiple therapeutic modalities including bispecifics, ADCs, CAR-based cell therapy, mRNA, TCR-mimic antibodies, siRNA, and targeted delivery systems from a unified Harbour Mice platform.
• Blood Brain Barrier Delivery Platform Targeted delivery platform leveraging fully human HCAb VH domains against targets including TfR1, CD98, and IGF1R for receptor-mediated transcytosis across the blood-brain barrier for CNS therapeutic delivery.
• TCR-Mimic Antibody Platform High-affinity, specificity-engineered TCR-mimic antibodies targeting intracellular tumor antigens, incorporating Fc-silencing modifications and anti-CD3 nanobodies for enhanced cancer immunotherapy.
• Antibody-Oligonucleotide Conjugates Conjugation platform for delivering oligonucleotides using antibody carriers for targeted tissue and cell-type specific delivery.
• Fully Human Antibody Discovery Service End-to-end antibody discovery service utilizing Harbour Mice platforms for generating fully human antibodies with optimized developability profiles, delivered to biopharmaceutical and biotech partners.
• siRNA Discovery Service RNA interference-based therapeutic discovery service for discovering and developing siRNA therapeutics targeting gene expression, offered to biopharmaceutical and biotech partners.
• Toxicology and Safety Assessment Service IND-enabling toxicology capabilities including immunogenicity risk assessment, off-target interaction evaluation, and mechanism-related safety studies for partnered programs advancing toward IND filing.
• CMC One-Stop Solution Integrated chemistry, manufacturing, and controls services covering process development, analytical characterization, and scalable manufacturing for biologics, supporting IND-enabling activities for partnered programs.
• Beacon Single B Cell Screening High-throughput screening technology enabling rapid identification of antigen-specific B cells from immunized Harbour Mice for antibody discovery, offered to partners as part of the discovery workflow.

Quantifiable outcome

• 314.6% YoY revenue increase to ~$158M in FY2025, driven by platform collaborations and subsidiary Nona Biosciences performance
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature14 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered key, supporting, core and emerging.

• Link Cell TherapieskeyStrategic or Co-development Partner · 9 January 2026Multi-target antibody discovery collaboration to advance CAR-T cell therapies for both solid and hematologic malignancies. Leverages Nona's HCAb Harbour Mice platform and NonaCarFx screening technology alongside Link Cell Therapies' logic-gated LINK CAR signaling technology to develop fully human heavy chain-only antibodies reducing immunogenicity and enhancing CAR design versatility.
• Strategic Platform Acquisitions and PartnershipssupportingTechnology or Integration · 24 December 2025Nona Biosciences announced expansion of its integrated discovery and development framework to include early clinical development, CMC, and toxicology capabilities, supported by strategic partnerships and platform acquisitions. This expansion enables the company to offer more comprehensive end-to-end services to global biopharma partners.
• Valink TherapeuticskeyStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 December 2025Strategic biologics discovery alliance to develop bispecific antibodies and ADCs with initial focus on solid tumors. The partnership combines Nona's Harbour Mice antibody platform with Valink's LiliumX discovery platform to generate and screen novel drug candidates and expand therapeutic pipelines through co-development.
• PfizercoreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing Partner · 19 November 2025Non-exclusive license agreement allowing Pfizer to access Nona's fully human HCAb platform for preclinical antibody discovery. The agreement involves upfront and milestone payments with potential for further antibody development collaborations. Pfizer collaboration milestones contributed to 2025 financial performance.
• Umoja BiopharmacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 November 2025Expanded collaboration to develop in vivo CAR-T cell therapies using combined platforms. The partnership creates multiple in vivo CAR-T products, with Nona providing HCAb-derived binders and functional screening capabilities. Umoja handles further development and commercialization, with financial milestones for Nona Biosciences. This collaboration supports Nona's entry into the in vivo CAR-T space.
• AstraZenecacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Platform-based research collaboration generating recurring revenue for Harbour BioMed/Nona Biosciences. AstraZeneca partnership represents one of the cornerstone strategic collaborations underpinning the company's sustainable financial foundation and platform validation through major pharma engagement.
• Bristol Myers SquibbcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Platform-based collaboration contributing recurring revenue streams as part of the company's diversified partnership portfolio. BMS collaboration validates the Harbour Mice platform through engagement with a leading global immuno-oncology player.
• OverT BioemergingStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Collaboration to develop next-generation cell therapies for solid tumors using Nona's HCAb Harbour Mice platform. The partnership addresses key challenges in solid tumor cell therapy including manufacturing efficiency, cost reduction, and therapeutic development for hard-to-treat cancers.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• AbCellera Biologics: AbCellera is a publicly traded AI-driven antibody discovery company that partners with pharma to discover and develop therapeutic antibodies using its proprietary technology platform. It is the most direct comparable to Nona, with a similar B2B partnership model, transgenic and display-based antibody discovery, and integrated AI/ML capabilities.
• GenScript ProBio: GenScript ProBio is a global biologics CDMO and antibody discovery services provider offering end-to-end capabilities from discovery through CMC and manufacturing. It directly overlaps with Nona's integrated discovery-to-IND model and similarly serves global biopharma partners.
• Ablexis (AlivaMab Biotherapeutics): Ablexis operates the AlivaMab Mouse, a transgenic mouse platform generating fully human antibodies, in a similar business model to Nona's Harbour Mice HCAb and H2L2 platforms. The two companies are direct competitors in the fully human transgenic antibody discovery niche.
• Specifica (an AstraZeneca company): Specifica was an antibody discovery platform company using in silico and display-based methods to generate fully human antibodies. It was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2022, illustrating the strategic value placed by big pharma on differentiated antibody discovery platforms comparable to Nona's.
• Isogenica: Isogenica is a UK-based antibody discovery company specializing in VHH (single-domain) and fully human antibody discovery using proprietary in vitro display and mini-protein platforms. It overlaps with Nona's HCAb and single-domain antibody work and serves similar pharma and biotech partners.

Broad incumbents

• Kymab (a Sanofi company): Kymab operated the IntelliSelect transgenic antibody discovery platform, a direct analogue of Harbour Mice, and was acquired by Sanofi for approximately $1.45 billion in 2021. It is a strong comparable on the underlying transgenic antibody platform technology and the strategic exit thesis.
• WuXi Biologics: WuXi Biologics is a leading global biologics CRO/CDMO offering discovery, development, and manufacturing services to pharma and biotech. It is a broader incumbent in the same end-to-end biologics services space where Nona is scaling its I-to-I platform.

Others

• Harbour BioMed: Harbour BioMed (HKEX: 02142) is Nona Biosciences' parent company and the originator of the Harbour Mice platform. It is the corporate parent rather than a peer, but it operates adjacent biotherapeutic development programs and is the source of Nona's spun-out platform and clinical assets.

Emerging players

• BioMap: BioMap is a Chinese AI-driven protein design company building foundation models for biology, including antibody and enzyme design. It is a partial competitor on the AI/ML-enabled biologic discovery layer (Hu-mAtrIx) and shares Nona's China footprint.
• Cradle Bio: Cradle is an AI protein engineering company offering generative design and optimization tools to biotech and pharma customers. It represents the emerging AI-native competition to the in silico and developability prediction layer of Nona's Hu-mAtrIx platform.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@NonaBiosciences
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/nonabiosciences

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Nona Biosciences