Harbour BioMed announced on June 11, 2026 the appointment of Dr. Dhavalkumar Patel as Scientific Advisor, adding a heavyweight regulatory scientist to the Hong Kong-listed biopharmaceutical company's scientific guidance. Patel, currently Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Seattle-based Sana Biotechnology, brings over two decades of experience spanning academia and pharmaceutical development across multiple therapeutic areas including immunology and oncology. His appointment reflects Harbour BioMed's strategic push to strengthen its antibody discovery capabilities as it pursues a portfolio of clinical-stage programs.
Dr. Jingsong Wang, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive of Harbour BioMed, framed the appointment as enhancing the company's scientific direction. In a statement, Wang said Patel's "outstanding combination of deep immunological science, proven drug development success, and board-level strategic insight will be a tremendous asset to us." The announcement provided no detail on the search process or identity of any retained search firm. Patel expressed confidence in Harbour BioMed's positioning, noting the company has "built a compelling portfolio of novel antibody candidates targeting key immune pathways" and is "well-positioned to make meaningful progress in areas of high unmet medical need."
Patel joins Sana in August 2024 as its first Chief Scientific Officer following an eight-year tenure at Belgiumbased UCB from 2017 to 2024, where he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer and contributed to regulatory approvals for three drugs: bimekizumab, rozanolixizumab, and zilucoplan. Before UCB, he spent a decade at Novartis, where as Head of Research for NIBR Europe he led programs contributing to the registration of seven approved therapies including secukinumab, fingolimod, and canakinumab. Prior to transitioning to industry in 2006, Patel held faculty positions at Duke University School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he served as an Eminent Professor of Medicine and Chief of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology. He holds a B.S., M.D., and Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from Duke University and maintains board certification in internal medicine, rheumatology, and allergy and immunology. Beyond Sana, Patel sits on the boards of Priothera, Quell Therapeutics, and RE-AIM Therapeutics, and chairs the board of Mimetas BV.
Harbour BioMed (HKEX: 02142) is a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with operations spanning three continents. Founded in 2016, the company achieved profitability in 2023 with approximately $89.5 million in revenue that year. More recently, for full year 2025, Harbour BioMed reported net profit of approximately $92 million on revenues reaching $158 million, representing 314.6 percent year-over-year growth, driven by strategic collaborations with multinational pharmaceutical companies including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Bristol Myers Squibb. The company's proprietary Harbour Mice platform generates fully human monoclonal antibodies in both conventional and heavy chain-only formats. Its HBICE bispecific antibody technology, derived from the heavy chain-only platform, targets tumor-killing mechanisms distinct from traditional combination therapies. Harbour has established itself as a platform services company, deploying its discovery capabilities across multiple collaborations with larger pharmaceutical firms.
Patel's appointment as Scientific Advisor, while non-executive in title, signals Harbour BioMed's confidence in leveraging world-class immunology expertise to guide its core development strategy. His track record at Novartis and UCB delivering multiple regulatory approvals in autoimmunity and inflammation, combined with his academic credentials, positions him to provide strategic counsel on program prioritization and de-risking. Given Harbour BioMed's recent trajectory toward profitability through partnerships rather than proprietary clinical advancement, Patel's guidance on immunology pipeline optimization may prove valuable as the company scales internally developed candidates beyond discovery. The advisory role could be interpreted as a lower-commitment alternative to a full-time executive position, allowing Patel to maintain his chief scientific role at Sana while contributing board-level insight to a company with complementary therapeutic focus.
