Cash flows for China biotech, healthcare plays show pace

Print 04 February 2016
EJ Lane / FeircePharmaAsia

Getting money to budding biotechs in China or for China-focused healthcare companies in the United States seems to be getting easier every day with this week seeing several moves of note.

Shanghai-based Qiming Venture Partners said it is on track to close its fifth dollar fund with at least $650 million in hand from investors, putting it on track to have around $2.3 billion under management in the healthcare space when combined with its three yuan-denominated funds.

The details on Qiming, contained in a press release outlining a history of the fund founded in 2006, said it is "one of the most active venture capital funds in China and currently has four U.S.-dollar and three RMB funds with over US$1.7 billion in assets under management, forty percent of the funds are invested in the healthcare sector."

The release noted that Qiming's managing partner responsible for the healthcare fund, Nisa Leung, has invested in companies such as Shanghai-based ZAI Lab, which recently cleared $100 million-plus in a Series B round.

At the same time as Qiming's announcement, Suzhou-based Adagene said it had secured a $28 million Series B financing led by GP Healthcare Capital.

Adagene is developing monospecific and bispecific antibodies for an in-house portfolio of therapeutic candidates focused on high unmet medical needs. It will use the cash to bring several of the programs through clinical proof of concept, according to a press release.

The round was joined by "New World TMT and current investors Eight Roads Ventures China (formerly Fidelity Growth Partners Asia), F-Prime Capital (formerly Fidelity Biosciences) and WuXi Corporate Venture Fund. China Renaissance acted as the exclusive financial advisor for Adagene in this financing," according to a press release.

For all the capital that flows into China, quite a bit is heading out as well.

This week, Shanghai-based WuXi Healthcare Ventures joined investments in two U.S.-based biotechs, one in San Francisco and the other in Cambridge, focused on gene work and that combined raised $101 million as part of the funds dedicated to "find in U.S. build in China" plans.

Source

Return